Moonlight and Daylight
by Swiftshadow123
Summary: Sequel to Shadow and Light. Shadow is living peacefully, but that changes when a vengeful spirit starts haunting him. Now he'll have to go on yet another insane and random journey with annoying kids, ninja jackals and an angry arch enemy. Pray for him!
1. The appearance

_Yup, I'm back and ready to type! (but I have already…hmm) I haven't finished the story yet, but I thought I would post the first chapter, then the second one later. Anyhow…I have exams, so I might not be typing so much anymore. I'll have to see. Enjoy the chapters!_

_Wait! New reader! Before you start, read the first story! There's spoilers in here! _

_Disclaimer: *glare* We meet again, evil piece of text….I do not own any Sonic characters, but I do own my usual OCs. _

Prologue

Down in Westopolis, it was nightfall, roughly about 12:00 in the evening. The moon was out, the streets were empty (but there were a few cars still on the road) and all was silent. In the darkness of a small alleyway, a black and white stray feral cat was sleeping near a bin. Even though he was a stray, his fur looked neat, and he was well fed.

The cat woke up as a door opened, sending a wave of loud music into the alleyway. Three men came out, laughing and joking around.

"Dude, that party's cool!" one of them said, slightly swaying from side to side.

"I think you had too much to drink, so why don't you let me drive this time?" his friend carefully guided him down through the alleyway with the other man.

The cat sighed, and was about to go back to sleep, when he sensed something. He looked around, and then saw a dark shape watching him on the roof above. The shape snarled softly at the cat, who wisely chose to hide behind his bin. The stray watched, as the dark shape padded silently to the end of the roof. It jumped off, and landed in front of the three guys.

"What is that?" one asked. The drunk man rubbed his eyes.

"I'm not tripping again, am I?" he wondered. The figure started stalking towards them, growling softly.

"I don't know what that thing is, but I think we should get out of here…" the other guy said. The shape stopped, snarling loudly. Then it unexpectedly leaped forward, and landed on the drunk guy.

"Cor blimey, thing's got me!" the guy shouted, trying to hit the growling form. The shape moved its head quickly forward and there was a sound of ripping.

"Good lord…did that thing just kill him…" one guy asked, slowly backing away.

"Come on, let's go!" they turned to run, which was their fatal mistake. The figure, seemly excited at the idea of a chase, ran at them. Near the bin, the cat watched as he heard screaming, more tearing, and wet splattering noises. He hissed as the shape approached him slowly. As he was close, the cat saw that the mysterious shaggy shape had glowing red eyes, it was on all fours, and there was blood dripping off its muzzle.

"Meow!" the cat jumped up onto the wall as the animal lunged forward. The cat quickly ran away, as the animal lifted its head.

"AROOOOOWWWW!" it howled at the sky.

The next morning, a woman walked into the alleyway, and found three dead corpses, and she promptly phoned the police.

_Yup…this sequel has more dark stuff, I reckon. And Writer's blocks. And the title might be ever so slightly cheesy. _


	2. Chris the annoyance!

_Another chapter! Thanks to Captain Hande and Lucy Labrador for reviewing! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own any Sonic characters, or Chain by Back On._

Chapter 1: Chris the Annoyance

"_Shadow….little one…." _a voice spoke in the darkness. The dark hedgehog turned around, trying to see where the voice was coming from. He couldn't see a thing.

"Reimaru, what part of 'Rest In Peace' do you not understand?" Shadow shouted angrily.

"_I cannot rest…I'm stuck between life and death again…"_

"Well, don't expect any sympathy from me. You deserve it."

"_That's harsh, little one…_"

"What do you want?"

"_There is something coming….please, little one…I know you hate me, and this is really humiliating for me, to be asking for help from a hedgehog…but you must listen…"_

Shadow growled.

"Look, I don't know if you're dead or not, but I am NOT helping you for the ninth time! Seriously, you're starting to p*** me off here!" he snarled. Reimaru just huffed.

"_Little one…the darkness is returning….find the Blade, and he'll lead you to the Crystal Cave….all of time and space is at stake…" _

"Can't you make this thing more clearer?"

"_No…I am prevented by the darkness from saying anything else…AHHH!" _Reimaru howled in pain.

"What now, did you break a claw?" Shadow crossed his arms, looking quite annoyed.

"_Get out of here…the darkness is coming! It'll-" _Reimaru's voice was cut off.

"Reimaru?" Shadow asked, feeling slightly concerned. There was a bright flash, and he found himself in a cave full of crystals. His side was hurting, and he was lying on the ground.

"_Ow…what is this…"_ Shadow thought. He heard a dark voice just in front of him.

"So, the so called demon fox is calling to Shadow for help? I'll fix you!" the voice snapped. Shadow felt his pain get worse, and his vision blurred.

"Reimaru, I'm going to get you for this!" he growled.

"Shadow! Hey! Snap out of it!"

In the real world, Shadow blinked his eyes open. He was in his bed, at his house. Maria was shaking him, looking worried.

"Ok, I'm up!" the dark hedgehog said.

"You were just shouting and thrashing around in your sleep! I couldn't wake you up!" Maria said.

"It was just a dream." Shadow got up, and grabbed his bands, which were on a bookshelf near to his bed.

"Oh really? How come you were shouting Reimaru's name?"

"No reason."

"This has been going on for two weeks now! I think you need to see a doctor." Maria sighed.

"No, I don't. It's not that bad." Shadow clicked his bands on. Just then, the doorbell went.

"Oh! I'll go and get that!" the girl hurried out of Shadow's room, as the hedgehog sighed. He only knew too well who the person at the door could be. He put his skates on, and went downstairs. A boy with spiky brown hair, blue eyes, a red top and blue trousers was just walking in.

"Hi, Shadow!" the boy greeted him. Shadow just stared at the kid.

"What do you want, Chris?" he asked. Chris rubbed his head.

"Well…I have cinema tickets, so I was just inviting Maria to come with me to the cinema…" Chris slowly explained. Shadow started blazing red with Chaos energy, looking like his dark form.

"You think you're clever, don't you?" Shadow growled, baring his fangs.

"It was just a simple d-" Chris stopped talking, as Shadow raised a fist, looking extremely furious. Maria walked by just in time, as Shadow was about to hit Chris.

"I hope you're being nice, Shadow." she said. Shadow quickly turned back to normal, and gave Chris a friendly pat on the arm.

"Yes, of course." he said, trying not to show his fury. Maria nodded, and continued walking. Chris went after her, not wanting to be left with an angry hedgehog. Shadow crossed his arms. Yes, he could remember that day, when that….boy had decided to turn up.

Shadow's flashback

It was a Saturday afternoon, down at the library in Station Square. Shadow was napping on a book at a table, snoring quietly. Maria was searching the bookshelf, and she had a pile of books in her hands. Meanwhile, a few shelves away, a boy was watching. He walked over, and smiled.

"Hi." he said.

"Oh, hi…do you want to look at the books here?" Maria asked.

"Nah…I saw you and your friend come in, so I thought I'd say hi."

"Do you like Twilight?"

The two teens soon started talking about Twilight, when there was some yelling. They turned around, and saw Shadow was twitching and shouting in his sleep.

"Leave me alone, Reimaru!" he shouted. The librarian looked up.

"Shush." she said. Obviously, Shadow couldn't hear her, so she started getting annoyed as a few people came over.

"Hush!" the librarian hissed. Maria and the boy went over to Shadow, who had stopped shouting, and was just twitching.

"Shadow? Wake up!" Maria shook Shadow, and he slowly woke up.

"I didn't just shout out aloud again, did I?" Shadow asked.

"You did…"

"I've got a mobile phone, I can call someone…" the boy took out a mobile phone, and Shadow shook his head.

"No, I'm perfectly fine." Shadow got up.

"Hey, I know you! You're Shadow the hedgehog!" the boy cried.

"Well done, Sherlock. You get a bonus point."

"I'm Chris! It's an honour to meet you!"

"QUIET! THERE WILL BE ORDER IN THE LIBRARY!" the librarian screamed. The teens found themselves being pushed outside.

So, after that, Chris started hanging around with them. Shadow wasn't happy, since he could easily see Chris fancied Maria.

*End of flashback*

Shadow sighed. He needed time to think about this situation, and the strange dreams he'd been having. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen on the stairs, and wrote a quick note. Then he ran outside, and skated down the road, taking out his music player to listen to.

Air Gear-Chain by Back On (the theme song!)

On top to break the chain,  
>No pain, don't be afraid,<br>But we're stuck with our same ol'days same ol'ways.  
>To simply keep on spinning's okay, in this unchanging old place.<p>

Repeated times fly on by, simply keeping to the rhythm like it's stuck in a crazy system.  
>This time we'll stop it,<br>From being like a puppet.  
>The sound has come and silenced, so can you hear my voice?<p>

Throw it all away, rid it from your life,  
>Earn your freedom and find a sense of pride.<br>Sorrows from within, held from yesterday,  
>Echoes in the wind. Shine again,<br>Go my way...

(Chorus)  
>Let's go and fly away!<p>

(On top to break the chain, no pain, don't be afraid!)  
>And break free from the chains.<p>

(Seeking freedom, release them, open your mind to see it!)

So spread your wings away!

(That's the sign it's time to try, you gotta fly!)  
>And soar the blue sky today.<p>

(No top nor bottom in sight, you gotta grab the sky!)

The week starts and with it comes the same ol' people walking,  
>The people strolling, and the same ol' sneakers on em'.<br>The same old roads we're rolling. The same ol' simple story.  
>I wanna step in the places unknown to me.<p>

Hell, I know you can't stop me.  
>I'll find my pieces and I won't stop them from shining.<br>The wind's at my back so it's time to fly!  
>And I know that I can soar right now!<p>

Keep the sun shining, scatter all the dust!  
>Roll and break those shackles bound before us,<br>Holding tomorrow, in its bounds within,  
>To destroy each bond and chain is,<br>My wish...

You ready to wake up? You gotta fly with us. (x3)  
>You ready to wake up? You gotta fly!<p>

You ready to wake up? You gotta fly with us! (x2)  
>Rid the dark in your eyes and you'll shine!<p>

(You ready to wake up?)

(To let it go.)  
>(Are you ready?)<p>

(Ready?)

(Ready with me)  
>(Ready?)<p>

Let's go and fly away!

(On top to break the chain, no pain, don't be afraid!)  
>And break free from the chains.<p>

(Seeking freedom, release them, open your mind to see it!)

So spread your wings away!

(That's the sign it's time to try, you gotta fly!)  
>And soar the blue sky today.<p>

(No top nor bottom in sight, you gotta grab the sky!)

The song faded away as Shadow slowed down, and took the headphones out of his ears. There was a loud commotion going on in front of him. A thick crowd of people were standing in the road, with police trying to maintain law and order among them.

"I wonder what's going on…?" Shadow thought. He managed to get to the front of the crowd, and saw a familiar black haired guy, looking around expertly.

Paul was searching the ground for something, with Lucas and a soldier.

"It looks like the tracks end here…" Paul muttered to Lucas.

"Where do you think it's hiding?" Lucas asked.

"It might be down in the sewers somewhere…if it can fit." Paul suddenly saw Shadow watching him, and walked over.

"Well, well, well…what brings you out here, hedgehog? I haven't seen you for a while." Paul said.

"What happened here?" Shadow asked.

"Some kind of animal killed three guys that were walking home. All these people are worried, because we can't find its tracks." Paul explained.

"Hmph…." Shadow pondered for a moment, until Paul interrupted him.

"The Commander's still keeping a very close eye on you, Shadow, so I wouldn't get comfortable if I were you. It's only a matter of time until you end up where you really belong…on Prison Island." he said, glaring at him. Shadow just walked away, thinking back to a few weeks ago.

The Commander had come bursting into his house, and demanded that Shadow was to come with him to Prison Island. Shadow was nearly caught, but Maria intervened and asked Samuel not to arrest Shadow. To cut a long story short, Samuel went away, but said he'd keep an eye on Shadow.

So that brought him to the present, full of strange dreams and annoying teenagers that went by the name of, 'Chris'. Shadow reached his favourite spot, a tree on a grassy hill just outside of Westopolis.

"Why can't Reimaru shut up for once…?" he asked himself.

Back at the house, Maria was beginning to become quite irritated with Chris, who had taken to listening to loud annoying music.

'IT'S FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN, IT'S FRIDAY!' Chris sang with the music video he was watching on Maria's laptop.

"_Good Chaos….what have I done in my past life to deserve this?"_ Maria thought, facepalming. She walked out of the room, and found the note that Shadow had wrote.

'Just gone out for a run, will be back whenever (or when you kick that annoying idiot out)

From Shadow'

"Maybe I should go out and find him."

Chris came after her.

"Hey, where did Shadow go?" he asked.

"He went out for a bit…I'm just going to find him."

"OK…I'll just go now, then." Chris left, as Maria walked out. As she was walking down the road, she came across two furries, a bat and a jackal, with their faces pressed up to a shop window.

"I think that's a Chaos emerald." Tachi said.

"How do these shops get Chaos emeralds anyway? I'd like to know." Rouge replied. Maria walked over to them.

"You two wouldn't be planning to steal yet another jewel, would you?" she asked. They turned around.

"Oh! Hi Maria! We didn't see you…where's Shadow?" Rouge wondered.

"He's somewhere…I was just going to go and look for him."

"We'll help you find him!" Tachi announced.

The jackal was a lot more confident now, and she'd stopped staying in her feral jackal form. She now lived near the Mystic Ruins, but she would come into the city sometimes to steal jewels and other shiny things to add to her collection. Tachi was obsessed with shiny stuff.

"OK, let's go!" they walked off.

_Chain is an epic song. You guys need to watch the fandubs on YouTube. As for the next chapter…I'll update whenever. I just had to put in the lyrics for the theme song, because I didn't do it in my first story._


	3. Old friends, even older rivals!

_Huzzah for the new chapter! _

_Disclaimer: Don't own Sonic characters, only OCs._

_First time readers: You're still reading this? Spoilers people, spoilers!_

Chapter 2: Old friends, even older rivals!

*theme song plays*

Shadow was still by his tree, staring at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, so he decided to walk back, when there was a rustle behind him.

"Huh? Who's there?" he whipped around, expecting to see soldiers, but instead there was a feral black and white cat watching him.

"Mew!"

"Oh, a cat. Well, if you came for food, I don't have any." Shadow turned around again, and started walking. The cat followed after him, mewing loudly.

"Don't you have a home to go to?" Shadow asked, getting annoyed.

"Meow!"

"I don't look after cats. So go home!" Shadow glared at the cat, who stared back. Then, out of the blue-

"SONIKUUU!" a female's voice rang out. Shadow looked down the path, to see Amy chasing after the blue blur.

"Amy! I have stuff to do!" Sonic yelled back.

"Come on, Sonic! Don't you want to see my wedding dress? I have a picture of it!"

Shadow quickly picked up the cat and stepped out of the way, as they ran past.

"Shady! Help!" Sonic called, trying to dodge Amy's attempts to hug him.

"When will he ever learn…?" Shadow dropped the cat, and continued walking, with the cat trailing behind him.

In the city, Maria and Rouge were doing their best to pull Tachi out of a shop with natural gemstones.

"Nooo! My shinies!" Tachi clung onto the doorway, as Rouge tried to pull her away.

"Rouge, I don't think Tachi's going to move…" Maria sighed, trying to get Tachi's hands off from the doorway.

"Move yourself, Tachi! We have places to go to!" Rouge pulled Tachi again, but she just hung on even tighter to the doorway. The shop keeper came rushing out.

"Look! You three! I'll offer you a discount if you get that jackal away from my door! She's scaring the customers, and she's going to break the door!" she said.

"Can I have a bracelet?" Tachi asked.

"Yes! You can have it for free, as long as you don't come back!" the shopkeeper gave Tachi a jade bracelet, and she let go of the door.

"OK, let's get out of here." Tachi walked away, holding her precious prize.

"…And this is what I have to put up with when I go shopping with Tachi." Rouge muttered to Maria. They walked down the road, but stopped as a girl with brown hair, a black t-shirt and blue trousers jumped out in front of them. She had a ninja like mask on her head.

"BEHOLD! For I am the great ninja detective, the Red Wolf!" the girl struck a pose.

"You look really familiar…" Maria muttered. Then she saw the girl was holding a frying pan.

"Hikari….what on earth are you doing?" she asked. The 'Red Wolf' sweatdropped.

"Well…it was 'Be A Ninja Detective Day' at my karate class, so…erm, we came up with codenames." she explained.

"You take karate?" Tachi's eyes widened.

"Yeah…with Akemi…I'm not sure where he is now-" Hikari stopped talking as Akemi walked up to them, wearing a mask like hers.

"….I am the great detective's sidekick, Orange Hawk. Fear me." Akemi muttered, sounding embarrassed.

"OK…well, we're looking for Shadow. Do you want to join us?" Maria asked them. Hikari looked at the ground, shuffling her feet.

"I would like to, but Samuel said if we ever spoke to Shadow again, he'd ground us for ever…" she said.

"Samuel? You mean, your dad?"

"Yes…but he's not my dad!" Hikari shouted.

"You don't like him?"

"It's not really that…it's just that we have a lot of arguments about what happened six months ago…." Hikari mumbled.

"We'll still come with you, though." Akemi added. They walked down the road.

In the evening, back with Shadow, he was walking though the city, trying to make the cat leave him alone.

"Stop looking at me like that!" he shouted. The cat purred, and rubbed against his ankles. Shadow just sighed. He honestly didn't know why cats, dogs and other animals kept on following him around like magnets. He continued down the road, then heard some soft sobbing from a alleyway. He curiously walked into it, and saw a small bluish grey young rat furry with a blue t-shirt and ripped denim jeans. The rat had his back to him, and was sniffing quietly.

"Hello?" Shadow stepped forward, unsure what to do. The rat turned around.

"No! Keep away! Stay away from me! Please!" the rat cried, jumping up and running off. He vanished around a corner, as Shadow went after him.

"Hey! I'm not going to hurt you!" Shadow called after him. He stopped as he heard the rat yelp in pain, and then he sped up, turning into a back road.

"Kid? Are you here?" he asked. The cat bristled his fur, and hissed, holding his tail down. Shadow watched the cat. This wasn't a good sign.

"Kid…?" Shadow took a step forward and leapt back as he saw gleaming red eyes in front of him.

"Oh *beep*" the hedgehog muttered, getting into a fighting position. The shape growled, and moved closer to him.

It was a gigantic black wolf, with glowing red eyes, red claws that were long, and grey stripes on its back and paws.

"Nice dog?" Shadow said, carefully backing away. The wolf snarled, and loped forward.

Quick as a flash, Shadow picked up the cat, and ran out of the back road, the wolf chasing after him. The wolf slashed forward with its claws, and missed Shadow by a inch.

"I really am starting to dislike dogs now!" he shouted. The cat jumped out of his arms, and stood in front of the wolf, hissing. Shadow turned around.

"Do you really have a death wish?" he called to the cat. The cat ignored him, and jumped over the wolf, scratching with his claws as he went. The wolf whimpered, and backed away. Then it ran off.

"That must have been the creature that Paul was talking about…" Shadow thought. He looked up to see vans driving towards him. They slowed down, and then loads of GUN soldiers came out of them, pointing their guns at Shadow.

"Shadow, stop!" one of them shouted. Shadow turned to the cat.

"I haven't even done anything, and they're already starting to blame me. Typical humans." he said. The cat just looked at him.

"Put your hands in the air!" a soldier called.

"Like the heck I will."

"Sir! He's resisting!" the soldier called back to someone behind him. That someone stepped in front of him, and grinned at Shadow.

"It looks like you've just given me a reason to arrest you." Samuel said. Shadow glared at him.

_¬_¬ It seems that guy is back. As always. _


	4. The secret of the Ultimate Death glare!

_Thanks to all the reviewers! I have an English exam in less than 10 hours…_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any Sonic characters, just my OCs. _

Chapter 3: The secret of the ultimate death glare!

*theme song plays*

Shadow glared across at Samuel, who was pointing a gun at him.

"I knew you were behind these killings…" Samuel muttered.

"You honestly think I killed those guys?" Shadow asked, looking angry.

"We both know you've killed people in the past…tonight, you'll be going down for it…"

Shadow's eye twitched.

"What? Can't handle the fact you're going to Prison Island?" Samuel grinned. Shadow took a deep breath, and-

"ARE YOU *BEEPING* BLIND? OR INSANE? DIDN'T YOU SEE THE WOLF CHASING AFTER ME?" he yelled furiously.

"Ah…but we have DNA samples which were found at the scene of the crime. And this." Samuel held up a small sealed see though bag, with black fur in it.

"Have you actually tested those, or are you just jumping to conclusions?"

"We're going to test them tomorrow, but in the meantime, you're going back to your nice cold prison." Samuel said.

"I knew you've always hated me…what about Maria?" Shadow asked.

"As much as I hate ignoring her, she isn't here right now to defend you. Which is unlucky for you."

"This is *BEEP*. Instead of actually going after the wolf, you're coming after me, and wasting time!" Shadow shouted, flattening his ears against his head.

"If there's a wolf, we'll catch it. Now, do you surrender?" Samuel asked. He wasn't surprised when Shadow waved two middle fingers, and swore.

"Up yours, *BEEP*." Shadow hissed. The odd-eyed Commander turned around to his soldiers.

"Get him." he ordered. They slowly approached Shadow, who growled, and got ready to fight. The cat narrowed his eyes, and unsheathed his claws beside him. Shadow dodged out of the way as a torrent of bullets flew towards him. He skated forward, and hit two soldiers in the head, while the cat leapt at another, and clawed his face. Shadow quickly dodged more bullets, Matrix style, and snapped his bands off. A red aura surrounded him, and he smirked.

"CHAOS BLAST!" he shouted. The soldiers went flying back, as the Commander facepalmed.

"Morons…" he muttered. He looked to see a vast crater in the road. Shadow was standing in it, panting and looking tired. Samuel smiled and walked over.

"Tactics…you really shouldn't have done that, Shadow." he said. Shadow just collapsed, half asleep.

Back with the still walking teens, they had heard the explosion, and were hurrying towards it.

"What do you think happened?" Hikari asked Maria, while they were running.

"I know a Chaos Blast when I see it…Shadow might have got into trouble." Maria replied back, looking worried. They saw Samuel just down the road, and sped up. As they stopped in front of him, Tachi turned into a husky, and snarled, bristling her fur. Samuel looked up.

"What do you kids want?" he asked.

"What did you do with Shadow?" Maria asked back. Samuel just reached down, and picked up a slightly growling hedgehog by his neck.

"I was just arresting him…he's a suspect." Samuel explained.

"But I told you not to arrest him!"

"You're just a kid. Why should I listen to you?" Samuel laughed. He stopped as he saw everyone backing away from Maria, who was glaring at him with what looked like one of Shadow's famous death glares.

"Now I see where Shadow got his famous stare of fury from." Hikari whispered to Rouge.

"It's always the quiet ones…" Rouge whispered back.

"How can you call me a kid? I'm older than you AND Shadow!" Maria shouted at Samuel, who was quaking in his shoes slightly.

"Age is just a number…" he muttered.

"I knew you when you were a toddler! What RIGHT do you have to call me a kid?"

Samuel, fearing for his wellbeing and health, quickly gave Shadow back to Maria, and walked off slowly.

"I'll be in touch!" he called back, taking out his mobile phone.

"…OK, you really have to show me how to do that." Hikari said to Maria, who was trying to wake Shadow up.

"It looks like he's passed out…" she mumbled.

"I know where we can go. Follow me!" Hikari darted off, with the group following behind her.

The cat, who had taken cover underneath a car, watched them walk away. He turned to look down an alleyway, where the wolf's red eyes were glowing in the darkness. The wolf growled a warning at the cat, and padded away.

Back with the Commander, he was walking down the road. He grinned as he examined some shiny golden bracelets in his hand.

"Without these, that hedgehog will have no choice but to surrender." he thought. He put the rings in his pocket, and continued walking.

_Oh dear…_

Tachi: BUT I WANTED TO STEAL THOSE RINGS!

_But I wanted them!_

Tachi: We'll have to settle this…with a game…of DINOSAUR KING! *slams down cards*

Samuel: *facepalm*


	5. The mysterious rat

_I know, I know, it's a late update…Thanks to all the reviewers!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any Sonic characters, just my OCs._

Chapter 4: The mysterious rat

*theme song plays*

"…Ow, my head…." Shadow groaned. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was lying on a bed, in a familiar looking room.

"Oh, you're finally up." a voice said. Shadow looked up to see Takeshi sorting out some papers at a desk.

"Takeshi? How long have I been out?"

"I think it was a few hours…"

"Did you bring me here?"

"No, it was Hikari, and some other people-" Takeshi stopped as the door flew open, and Hikari ran in.

"Shadow! I haven't seen you for months!" she shouted, grabbing the startled hedgehog in a bear hug.

"Yes, I know…it'll be nice if you could just ease up a bit off the hug…" Shadow mumbled. Hikari stopped hugging him, and smiled.

"You're still the same anti-social hedgie that I know!" she said. Shadow just crossed his arms. Then he realised something important.

"Does Maria know I'm here? She must be worried.." he muttered.

"Oh yeah, she's downstairs talking to some guy called Chris-" Hikari jumped back as Shadow leapt out of the bed, and ran out of the room quickly.

"What's with him?" she asked Takeshi, who shrugged.

"I don't know, maybe he's protective of your friend?" he suggested.

Shadow ran into the waiting room, and saw Maria and Chris talking. He went over, as they appeared to be having some kind of argument.

"Chris, I can't come to the library today, Shadow's hurt…" Maria said.

"Oh, come on! He can take care of himself. Isn't he supposed to be the ultimate life form or something like that?" Chris grumbled.

"Yes, I know, but I need to stay here."

"I don't know why you're so attached to him…he's just a hedgehog…" Chris muttered. He felt a tap on his arm, and turned around, to see a furious Shadow standing behind him, shimmering red with Chaos energy.

"JUST? JUST a hedgehog?" Shadow snarled. Chris' eyes widened as Shadow glared at him.

"Meep." was all Chris could say, as he backed away from Shadow.

"Shadow, I think you should calm down." Maria said slowly, as Shadow raised a fist.

"This is the last straw. He came into my house, sat on my sofa, watched my TV, and stole that packet of biscuits I was saving! Then he has the nerve to say I'm just a hedgehog!" Shadow snapped.

"He doesn't mean it!"

Akemi walked into the room a few moments later, to see a cowering Chris, and a mad Shadow, who was waving his arms and being held back by Maria.

"Guys? What's going on here?" he asked.

"Akemi, don't just stand there like a bird on a washing line! Help!" Maria shouted.

"Let go of me! I have to teach that kid a lesson!" Shadow growled, still trying to get Chris. He suddenly felt tired, and stopped moving.

"You're lucky this time, kid." he panted.

"I'm just going to go now…" Chris ran out of the building.

"Are you OK? You don't look too good…" Maria said, letting go of Shadow.

"Where are my rings?" Shadow asked.

"You don't have them?"

"No…" then Shadow recalled last night.

Shadow's flashback

"I think I'll take these, so you won't be able to fight without fainting." Samuel said, kneeling down and taking Shadow's rings.

"You…give those back!" Shadow growled, trying to stand up. Samuel watched as he passed out.

*end of flashback* (wow, that must be the shortest flashback in history)

"The Commander! He took them!" Shadow shouted.

"Don't worry, we'll get them back later." Akemi replied.

"You don't understand! I need those rings back now! If I use my Chaos energy with them off, I'll get tired, and fall into a coma! That's why Samuel took them!" Shadow freaked out.

"Well, don't use your energy then." Akemi said.

"Don't use it? That's nearly impossible!"

Just then, there was a loud thud against the door.

"I wonder who that is?" Akemi pondered. He opened the door, and a grey and white rat furry with a denim jacket fell in front of him.

"Hey, are you ok?" Akemi asked, shaking the rat. The rat bristled his fur.

"…Spark…leave him…" the rat groaned.

"Someone had better call Takeshi down here."

A few moments later, they were in Takeshi's office. The rat was sleeping in a bed.

"I think the rat's going to be fine…but something isn't right. He has no injuries, and his tail…" Takeshi muttered.

"What about his tail?" Shadow asked. Takeshi walked over to the rat, and picked up his tail carefully. There were long sharp steel spikes running all the way down it.

"Is he a robot?"

"No, but I still don't know how he got these spikes on his tail."

"That's weird." Hikari muttered.

"Spark…where are you?" the rat asked in his sleep, turning over.

_HOORAY FOR NEW OCs!_


	6. Bladetail the rat!

_DOUBLE UPDATE, EVERYONE!_

_Disclaimer: I'm going to kill it…._

Chapter 5: Bladetail the rat!

*theme song plays*

It was late afternoon, and Tachi was bored out of her mind. She had irritated Takeshi, tried to steal Hikari's frying pan (and got smashed in the head with it). She, Akemi, Shadow and Maria had gone out shopping (or just looking at random stuff) and Rouge had mysteriously vanished. What could a shapeshifter do in this situation?

Tachi walked into the room where the rat was, and saw a glinting object in the sunlight.

"Oooh…shiny…" she muttered, turning into her feral jackal form and stalking towards it. She slowly approached the shiny thing, then pounced and bit it.

"OW!" she cried. The rat winced in his sleep and whimpered.

Tachi slowly let go of the object, and saw it was in fact the rat's tail, which had long glinting spikes that looked razor sharp.

"Shiny tail?" she wondered out loud.

"SPARK! DON'T DO IT!" the rat called out. He sat up quickly, panting like he was just in a nightmare.

"Oh…hi?" Tachi said, quickly stepping away from the rat's tail. The rat peered over the edge of the bed, and saw a blinking jackal.

"Wha- did you just talk?" he asked. Tachi nodded.

"You'll get used to it."

"Then that means…I must have been caught, and taken back to the lab!" the rat panicked.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but this is just Takeshi's place." Tachi said.

"So there's no guards here, or scientists trying to chase you around with a needle?" the rat asked.

"Well…it is a vet's place…but no, there's no guards."

"A vet's place…" the rat repeated, flicking his tail. Tachi ducked down as the spikes narrowly missed her.

"Watch it with that tail of yours! It could slash someone!" she cried.

"Sorry…so, who are you? Are you some kind of experiment or something?" the rat asked. Tachi sweatdropped.

"Yeah…I guess you could say that…" she replied, staring into the distance.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Tachi the jackal. Pleased to meet you…"

"I'm Bladetail the rat. As you probably guessed from my tail…" the rat introduced himself.

"Bladetail? Can I call you Blade?" Tachi asked. Blade nodded.

"So…is there a bathroom around here? I need to…well, you know…" Blade blushed under his fur.

"Yeah, it's just down the hallway. Turn right, and you'll see it." Tachi replied. Blade jumped up, and walked out of the room, slashing the wall with his tail by mistake.

A few moments later, Takeshi was in his office, sorting out some work. He heard some footsteps in the corridor outside.

"It's probably Tachi…" he thought. He listened as the footsteps walked past his office, then continued with his work.

"So, is there anything to eat in this place? I haven't eaten proper food for a while!" Blade said, walking back into the room.

"Well, I can always ask Takeshi…" Tachi barked.

"Takeshi? Who is he anyway?"

"He's a vet…"

Blade froze, and looked at Tachi with his eyes narrowed.

"By vet, do you mean human vet?" he asked. Tachi nodded, and flattened her ears as Blade yelled.

"NO! I have to get out of here! You should as well!"

"What's wrong?" Tachi asked in concern.

"He'll…he'll send me back if I don't leave!" Blade ran out of the room, and Tachi followed him.

"He's friendly!" she called to Blade.

"Yeah, that's what the last guy I met was like!" they raced out of the building, and Tachi ran in front of him.

"I'll take you to my friends! They can help you out." she decided. She turned back into a furry, and steered a puzzled rat down the road.

At the shopping centre, Akemi and Shadow were sitting on some seats, looking incredibly bored. They had been dragged against their will into a clothes store, with Hikari insisting it wouldn't take long.

"Why are girls always so interested in these clothes?" Shadow pondered.

"I don't know, but I'm dying of boredom here." Akemi sighed. Hikari came running out in front of them, holding a red jumper.

"Hey! Don't you think this suits me?" she asked.

"Gee, I don't know Hikari…I'M FREAKING COLOUR BLIND!" Akemi suddenly yelled.

"You're colour blind? I didn't know that…" Shadow muttered.

"Yes, I don't see colours clearly."

"Sorry Akemi…Shadow, how do you like this jumper?" Hikari waved the jumper in Shadow's face.

"Yes, yes, it looks fine. Where's Maria?" he asked. Hikari thought for a bit.

"Hmm…she said something about a guy called Chris is outside the store or something like that…" she blinked as Shadow rocketed out of the store.

"I think we should go after him." Akemi said, getting up. They went after him.

Shadow came across Maria and Chris in a bookstore, and listened to their conversation.

"So, do you read Death Note?" Chris asked, picking up a manga book.

"No…I don't like the look of it. But this book….Fruits Basket, seems good." Maria showed him another book.

"Hey…Erm…I know this is going to sound random….but I'm going to say it now…I fancy you." Chris blushed, rubbing his head.

"I kind of guessed already…"

"So, do you like me?" Chris asked.

"Erm….I guess? Sort of?" Maria said, sounding unsure. She didn't want to upset Chris.

"…Erf." there was a muffled noise behind the bookshelf.

"What was that?" Chris asked. Behind the bookshelf, Shadow skated out of the store.

"I…I don't believe this…" he thought. He slowed down as Akemi and Hikari walked up.

"Hey, what's wrong Shadow?" Hikari asked. Shadow just ignored her.

"Hikari, I don't think Shadow wants to talk right now…" Akemi muttered. He turned, and then saw it. A weapon store. Soft hallelujah music started to play.

"Shadow! Come on! We're going in there!" Akemi dragged Shadow into the store, while Hikari facepalmed.

"What is it with boys and weapons?" she wondered.

In the weapon store, Akemi acted like a little kid lost in a candy store, with free sweets. He ran around, examining every weapon in the store, until he saw an impressive machine gun on the counter. He picked it up, his eyes sparkling.

"Oh my…." he trailed off, admiring the gun. He failed to notice the 'upgraded gun reserved for customer' sign next to it.

Shadow sat down on the floor, quietly staring into space. He felt depressed.

"Just what is the point of my existence…?" he thought. A tall figure loomed over him suddenly, and he looked up. Samuel was standing there, grinning down.

"It looks like Maria's not around…hedgehog." he said. Shadow just looked away, not really caring much.

"Now, I'll take you to Prison Island!" Samuel shouted. Shadow just sniffed, and Samuel sweatdropped. It seemed his speech wasn't having much of an effect on the hedgehog.

"…And you'll be kept in suspended animation forever!" Samuel laughed. Shadow just sighed sadly.

"OK. Something really bad must have happened to you. Otherwise you would have Chaos speared me by now."

"…I can't Chaos spear you anyway. I don't have my bands, and I really don't care about Prison Island." Shadow mumbled.

"…You know what, let me go and get my machine gun. Then, I'll threaten you!" the Commander said with glee, walking off. He stopped as he saw Akemi hugging his machine gun near the counter, with love hearts in his eyes.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Samuel asked impatiently.

"This gun…it's just so impressive!" Akemi cried. The Commander facepalmed.

"That gun is mine." he said, grabbing the gun. Akemi hung on to it.

"Finders keepers!" he shouted.

"Let go!"

"No! Tis mine! All mine!"

"Drop it! You don't know how to use it!"

An epic game of tug of war started, with Akemi gripping on one side, and Samuel gripping the other. After a while, the Commander finally won, and got his machine gun back. He went over to Shadow, and pointed it at him.

"Hah! Now you're going to beg for your life!" he said.

"…I don't care much about my life anymore…the person I love likes an annoying git instead of me…" Shadow sighed.

"…I'm getting fed up of this!"

Hikari was waiting outside, when Maria walked over to her with Chris.

"Hey, do you know where Shadow is?" she asked.

"Yeah, he went into that place over there-" as Hikari pointed, there was a loud bang from inside the shop.

"What was that?" Chris asked. Then they saw the Commander walk out of the store, dragging something behind him. Hikari realised he had Shadow.

"YOU *BEEP*" she shouted, whipping out her frying pan and running over.

"Hikari, get out of my way." Samuel snapped. When Hikari ran towards him, he quickly yanked the frying pan out of her hand, and threw it away. Then he walked off, into a nearby car park. Hikari ran after him, then stopped as the Commander got into his car and drove off.

"YOU *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP*! YOU'RE GOING TO GET *BEEP* WHEN I *BEEP* FIND YOU!" Hikari raged, waving her hands. The others ran over.

"Did he really just take Shadow?" Akemi asked. Hikari nodded sadly. There was a long silence, that was broken by-

"Good riddance." Chris announced. Hikari and Maria slowly turned to look at him, looking pretty furious.

"Oh, sh-"

_Don't you just dislike Sammy?_

Samuel: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU'RE THE AUTHOR!

_I guess so…_

_A note-I'm not the best romantic writer out there…heck, I don't even have a boyfriend._


	7. Reimaru the therapist!

_Woot, another chapter straight from the world of Microsoft Word!_

Captain Hande-_You're going to have to go and ask Samuel or Akemi to tell you what kind of gun it was…I don't know *BEEP* about any weapons, except for heavy coursework and the trusty lunchbox._

Darkrose826-_Yes, yes! I know! *cough, later chapters, not far away cough* and you're lucky Shadow or Samuel didn't hear you when you said you hated Maria…they might have tracked you down._

Samuel: What's that? Someone hates Maria?

_No…I'm pretty sure I had a Commander proof door. Oh well…if any reviewers want any doors, they're free! And they really work! _

_Warning: DO NOT HAVE COFFEE BEHIND THE DOOR. HE WILL SNIFF IT OUT. REALLY, HE CAN._

_Disclaimer: *shreds it* Sorted!_

Chapter 6: Reimaru the therapist?

*theme song plays*

Chris nursed his injuries, rubbing his head which now had a large lump shaped like a frying pan.

"I suppose that'll teach me to not say bad things about Shadow…" he thought.

The group were still in the car park, debating on what to do.

"When I get home, I'm really going to get it." Hikari sighed, gripping her pan.

"Yes, but how are we going to get Shadow back?" Maria asked. She suddenly got an idea.

"…Hikari, maybe when you go home, you could ask Samuel where Shadow is?" she suggested.

"He'll never tell me. Besides, I'm not going home…I know there's an angry babysitter waiting for me there…and the shouting of a lifetime."

"Yeah, I think we should go back to Takeshi's place." Akemi said.

As they walked out of the car park, they heard yelling and fighting going on. They ran over to the commotion and saw a few people watching a fight. A group of men were trying to grab Tachi and a rat, but they were yelling and running around.

"Keep away from us!" Tachi yelped. She got caught by one of the guys, but managed to get free.

"Hang on Tachi!" Hikari shouted, waving her frying pan and jumping into the fight. She hit a guy in the arm, and he jumped back.

"Let's get out of here!" he shouted. T hey ran away, and Akemi turned to the people watching.

"What's the matter with you guys? Can't you see that they needed help?" he shouted at them. They just walked away, not saying a word.

"Jerks…"

Tachi stood up, panting. Then she saw Blade lying on the ground, his tail lashing around.

"Blade! They've gone! We're safe now." she said, nudging the rat. Blade got up, and stared at Hikari.

"Just who are you? Why did you help us?" he asked. Hikari facepalmed.

"Not even a little thank you? Sheesh, a bit of gratitude would be nice." she muttered.

"Sorry…it's just that…"

"That what?"

"You're…a human…"

"And you're a speciest rat."

"Is speciest even a word?" Akemi asked Maria, who shrugged.

"I don't know…" she said.

"Tachi, let's get out of here. We can't trust these people, and we shouldn't have come…" Blade mumbled, starting to walk off.

"Wait! These are my friends!" Tachi shouted quickly.

"Friends? These humans?" Blade stared at the teens.

"Hey, less of that human thing, if you don't mind! She actually used to be a ghost cat!" Hikari pointed at Maria.

"Hmmm…..I guess I'll stay with you people…but don't get any funny ideas." Blade warned them.

"Sure, sure…wait, aren't you that rat that passed out? Back at Takeshi's place?" Hikari asked.

"Yes…I'm Bladetail the rat." Blade said.

"But you can call him Blade!" Tachi chirped. Blade glared at her, and she sweatdropped.

"We should get going." Akemi said. They walked away.

Meanwhile, back with Shadow, he was in his dreams again.

"_You really need to be more careful…" _Reimaru muttered.

"I don't care much any more…" Shadow sighed.

"_Have you finally gone emo?"_ Reimaru wondered. Shadow's ears twitched. If he could see the fox, he would have Chaos speared him for saying that.

"No, I haven't! It's just….well, it's none of your business anyway."

"_Does it have something to do with that annoying brat with the red shirt?"_ Reimaru asked. Shadow didn't answer.

"_Or…perhaps it's that girl…you like her, don't you?"_ Reimaru realised.

"Shut up…." Shadow hissed.

"_We're both in the same boat here, so you might as well talk about it…it'll make you feel better…" _

"What are you talking about? We're not in the same boat! I can wake up anytime!" Shadow shouted.

"_I wouldn't be so sure about that…you remember getting shot, right?" _Reimaru asked. Shadow nodded.

"_Well, that guy…Samuel, he shot you in the chest…so sadly, you're stuck between life and death like me now."_

"What? I'm going to die?"

"_I'm not sure…." _

"Hmph…."

"_So, do you want to tell me what happened now?"_ Reimaru asked.

"What's the point? You won't understand. You've never known how it's like to lose someone you loved to someone else!" Shadow yelled. Reimaru was silent.

"Exactly. That's what I thought." Shadow growled.

"_Actually, I do know what it's like. I've had to put up with the fact my best friend hates me for killing her little brother." _Reimaru mumbled.

"Wow, you have a friend? I thought you demon foxes just like to kill everyone for no reason."

"_That's just a stereotype…so, tell me your story first, and I'll listen."_

Shadow explained to Reimaru what had happened to him. The fox listened patiently until he was finished.

"_I knew that boy was trouble. You should have ripped him to shreds. That's what I would have done."_ Reimaru said, growling.

"….And that's why demon foxes are nearly extinct." Shadow muttered under his breath.

"_Didn't that girl realise you liked her as well?" _Reimaru asked.

"I don't think she knows as yet…"

There was some silence from Reimaru. Then he exploded.

"_Shadow, you idiot! You just let yourself be shot by Samuel, when you could have told Maria you love her!" _he shouted.

"But…she likes Chris…why would she like me?" Shadow sighed. He jumped up as Reimaru howled.

"_You have no social skills what so ever! It was a misunderstanding! She obviously didn't want to hurt this boy's feelings by just saying, 'No, I don't like you!'" _he roared. Shadow sweatdropped.

"Yeah, that's what you say…" he muttered.

"_I have had enough of your self pity!" _Reimaru snapped. There was a bright flash, and Shadow found himself standing in a hospital room. He looked around, and saw himself lying on a bed.

"What the….how is this possible?" he shouted.

_I sense references in the next chapter. *cough, SISSEL FOR THE WIN, YOU SHOULD BUY GHOST TRICK: PHANTOM DETECTIVE NOW OR LOOK AT THE WALKTHOROUGH ON YOUTUBE, cough*_

Tachi: That was a very long cough.

Blade: Is Capcom paying you to advertise Swift?


	8. Shadow has Ghost Tricks?

_Huzzah, a new chapter!_

Captain Hande_: I saw Samuel a few minutes ago. He's hiding behind that sofa with a grenade launcher, if you wanted to know._

Jinxanna Rose: _Yeah, I'm prone to long coughs…_

_Disclaimer: *blasts it away with homemade flamethrower*_

_And…HERE COME THE GHOST TRICKS!_

Samuel: *muttering behind sofa* And the cheesiness…

Chapter 7: Shadow has Ghost Tricks?

*Theme song plays*

Shadow stared at himself. There was a bandage tied around his chest, and his fur was fluffed up.

"At least I'm alive." he thought, as he saw his ears twitch. Then he looked down at his hands, and saw that he was transparent.

"WHAT THE *BEEP*?" he shouted.

"We're ghosts, idiot." Reimaru's voice sounded behind Shadow. He turned around, and saw Reimaru in his human form.

"What did you do Reimaru?" the hedgehog shouted.

"Relax…I just separated your soul from your body, that's all." Reimaru said smugly. Shadow's ears flattened down.

"So that means….you killed me!" he shouted. Reimaru facepalmed.

"No. You're still alive. You're just in a coma, that's all."

"Take me back!" Shadow shouted.

"No! Not until you go and see Maria, and explain to her that you love her."

"HOW THE *BEEP* AM I SUPPOSED TO SEE HER, IF I'M A GHOST? SHE CAN'T SEE ME!" Shadow roared in the fox's face.

"Calm down…I should explain this more….you now have the powers of the dead, so you can walk though walls, and manipulate objects. They're called Ghost Tricks."

"How on earth are these Ghost Tricks supposed to help? People still can't see me!" Shadow shouted. Lucas walked into the room, and walked right past them, not taking notice of the fact that there were two ghosts in the room.

"See?" Shadow shouted, waving his arms.

"Try possessing an object." Reimaru sighed. Shadow shot him a death glare, and walked over to a lamp. He touched it, and felt himself being pulled into the object.

"THANKS A LOT REIMARU! NOW I'M A FREAKING LAMP!" he shouted, not realising he was making the lamp move up and down.

"Don't worry, you're not a lamp forever. Just try scaring that guy over there….he has a needle." Reimaru pointed at Lucas, who was taking a needle out.

"This should work…." Lucas muttered, picking up Shadow's arm. The ghost hedgehog freaked out as he saw the needle.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" he shouted. He made the lamp switch on, then rolled it over to Lucas, who looked down.

"A desk lamp? Must have fallen." Lucas muttered. He was about to pick up the lamp, when it started slapping his hand.

"….Oh my….GHOST LAMP!" Lucas shouted, racing out of the room.

"That's right! You'd better run!" Shadow called after him. He came out of the lamp.

"Not bad. You'd make a fairly good poltergeist." Reimaru said thoughtfully.

"How do we get out of here?" Shadow asked.

"We can't be seen, so we'll just walk around until we see the exit." Reimaru said. He turned, and walked through the door. Shadow just stared.

"Come on!" Reimaru called. Shadow followed after him, and found a group of GUN soldiers on the other side.

"You're definitely sure they can't see us, right?" he asked. Reimaru nodded. They walked down the corridor, but came across Samuel, who was walking to his office, with a coffee.

"So, the Commander can't see us?" Shadow asked.

"I don't think-" Reimaru stopped talking as Samuel stared right at them.

"Don't move…" Reimaru whispered to Shadow. Samuel dropped his coffee.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SHADOW?" he shouted.

"…So much for being a ghost." Shadow scowled at Reimaru. The fox sweatdropped.

"People with odd eyes can see ghosts….I forgot the Commander had odd eyes." he explained.

"So, you're dead?" Samuel asked Shadow, choosing to ignore Reimaru.

"Why should I tell you?"

"So, you're dead…YESSSS! YES YES YES YES!" Samuel ran off, whooping and cheering. A couple of GUN recruits watched him.

"Does he do that often?" one asked his friend.

"Only when he's had too much coffee. Or when Death Note is on TV." the other recruit whispered back.

"Do you think I should tell him I'm not dead?" Shadow asked Reimaru.

"Nah…he'll find out later." they continued walking. They soon ended up outside, in the yard, where it was nightfall.

"Right…we can possess stuff, right?" Shadow asked. Reimaru nodded, and Shadow's eyes sparkled mischievously.

"How about we possess that?" Shadow shouted, pointing at a large tank. Reimaru grinned evilly.

"I like your thinking, little one!" he said.

A drunk sat on a bench, slurping beer out of a can. He heard something like a motor, and stared as a large tank drove past him.

"What the *BEEP*?" he wondered, scratching his head.

A few hours later, the tank pulled up outside Takeshi's practise. Shadow and Reimaru jumped out of the tank.

"We have to do this more often." he said to the fox. They walked though the door, and saw that the place was silent. Tachi was in her feral jackal form, curled on top of Blade, who was asleep.

"It looks like Tachi's found a boyfriend." Shadow whispered to Reimaru. The jackal's eyes opened.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" she shouted, looking around.

"So Tachi can hear me?" Shadow said, glaring at Reimaru.

"Yes…but she's in the form of a feral jackal now, so that's why she can hear us." he explained. They started walking again, until they were outside the bedrooms.

"OK…how on earth can I get Maria to see me?" Shadow asked. Reimaru was about to answer, when there was a clatter behind them. They turned around, and saw Akemi watching them with his mouth wide open.

"Shut your mouth, boy, you're going to catch flies." Reimaru snapped.

"….Just what is going on here?" Akemi shouted.

"You have odd eyes, don't you?" Shadow asked. Akemi nodded, and Shadow turned to look at Reimaru.

"I have a plan." he grinned.

A few moments later, Maria was woken up by Akemi, who still looked surprised.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Akemi sweatdropped.

"Erm….Shadow and Reimaru are ghosts…and Shadow wanted me to tell you something…" Akemi muttered. Maria stared at him, and there was the sound of crickets chirping.

"Thanks a lot guys." Akemi muttered to the thin air next to him. Maria sweatdropped.

"So…are they really there?" she asked. Akemi nodded.

"Shadow says that he's sorry for giving himself up to Samuel and…." Akemi trailed off, his face going red.

"And?"

"He says that he loves you." Akemi grumbled.

"….."

Akemi looked up to see Maria staring into space, with a dreamy look on her face.

"OK then….I'll go…and don't tell anyone I said any of that stuff!"

"Wait! Is Shadow still there?"

"Yeah…"

"….I've liked you for a long time."

"ME?"

"No, Shadow!"

Akemi turned back to the empty space next to him.

"He seems to be speechless." he said.

"OK…." there was a long awkward silence in the room.

"Oh, yeah, he said that he's at the GUN base in Westopolis. Reimaru says that you should push Chris off a cliff, by the way." Akemi added.

"What is Reimaru doing here anyway? I thought he was evil."

"He said that after seeing this scene, he's on the good side. Because he wants to strangle Chris."

"Reimaru! Don't you dare!" Maria shouted.

"Well, I'm going back to bed. Before this mushy stuff makes me throw up." Akemi walked out of the room.

_Wow, many Ghost Trick references. I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself. It has a great story…you're playing as a guy named Sissel, who has died and is now a wandering ghost with 'ghost tricks' which are powers to possess and manipulate objects, and go back to four minutes before someone's death. He gets told by a spirit called 'Ray' (who is possessing a desk lamp) that he has just one night to solve his murder and find his past, before his soul is erased from existence. So, he becomes a detective…a phantom detective._


	9. Team Tesco!

_Yup, it's another update!_

Captain Hande:_ Wow, you really did own Samuel. *pokes him with a stick and he twitches* something tells me he's going to be mad later on, though._

Darkrose826:_ IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! IT'S A BROTHER/SISTER RELATIONSHIP! KIND OF…_

*All OCs look at me funny*

_And…the idea came out of nowhere. Oh well. Don't worry, NOTHING will happen. _

Disclaimer: _I'm busy! *goes back to poking Samuel with stick and is kicked off cliff* Ow…and, thank you to Lucy Labrador, who suggested the team name in this chapter should be Team Tesco!_

Chapter 8: Team Tesco

*theme song plays*

The next day in the evening, everyone got ready to go down to Westopolis. Hikari packed her bag with marbles, books and string, and polished her frying pan (it was beginning to look a bit dirty, and it had a few dents in it) and got her ninja mask. Akemi, being the laid back guy in the group, just had a cricket bat. Tachi and Blade didn't get any weapons (because Blade said he was too awesome for weapons) and Maria had her DS (just in case a Pokémon Battle was needed) and her laptop.

"OK, guys, let's go!" Hikari shouted, pulling down her mask.

"Oh dear Amaterasu….what did I sign up for?" Akemi said under his breath.

"YAY! This is going to be awesome!" Tachi chirped, bouncing around while a silent Blade watched her.

Takeshi walked to them.

"Are you sure you kids can handle this?" he asked.

"Of course! Together, we'll show Samuel-" Maria was about to say the rest of her quote, when everyone glared at her.

"Yes, yes…I'll stop making annoying lines." she mumbled.

"I think you guys need a team name." Takeshi said. Everyone started talking at once.

"Team Ninja Kittens!" Hikari shouted.

"Team Fluffy!" Maria said.

"Team Random Teens That Wave Frying Pans When They're Mad." Blade murmured.

"Team Attack of the Ninja Owls With Missiles!" Akemi yelled.

"TEAM TESCO!" Tachi yelled over all of them. Everyone stared at her with O_O expressions.

"What? I like Tesco…" the jackal mumbled.

"I say we should be Team Attack Of The Ninja Owls With Missiles." Akemi insisted. He stopped as Tachi turned into her feral jackal form and snarled, showing very pointy fangs.

"I agree with Tachi! Team Tesco!" he said quickly. Since no one else wanted to argue with Tachi, they decided to call themselves Team Tesco.

They headed out to the GUN base, and stopped outside.

"It's a pity no one couldn't have hacked the security system for us." Akemi said, staring at Maria, who frowned and took out her laptop.

"I can hack the system now!" she said, typing away.

In the GUN base, Lucas and Samuel were playing a game on the computer.

"This 'Robot Unicorn Attack' game is good, isn't it?" Lucas asked Samuel.

"Yeah…they could have come up with a better song though." Samuel sighed. Then, the computer froze, and the game disappeared.

"Did you upgrade that anti virus software?" Samuel asked.

"Yes, I did it a few hours ago."

They watched as another window opened up. It was a video with a black and white cat furry with glasses, a black jumper and a black and white skirt. She was holding a guitar.

"Hi! This is Swift's music channel! And you're watching…I Know A Song That Will Get On Your Nerves!" the cat announced. She coughed a bit, fiddled with the guitar, and then…

"I KNOW A SONG THAT WILL GET ON YOUR NERVES, GET ON YOUR NERVES, GET ON YOUR NERVES!" she yowled badly, playing the guitar out of tune.

"MY EARS!" Samuel shouted, trying to click out of the video. The video just played even louder.

"Who would do such a wicked, heinous, down right AWFUL act like this?" Lucas yelled, covering his ears as the song got louder.

Outside the base, everyone watched Maria with O_O expressions. The trouble was, she looked so innocent, that there was an imaginary angel halo above her head.

"Well, you did want me to hack into the system, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yes, but we didn't want you to damage people's ears…" Akemi said.

"Oops…well, let's just sneak inside."

Team Tesco crept around to the back of the base, and Hikari pulled out her rope. She threw it over the high wall, checked to see it was tied, and climbed up. Everyone followed after her.

"OK, what now?" she asked Maria.

"I don't know, find a way inside?" she replied. Just then, some soldiers ran up, and pointed torchlights at them.

"You kids are trespassing on government land!" one of them shouted. Maria turned to Hikari, who had her frying pan out.

"I'll handle this." she said. The soldiers stared at her.

"Hey, isn't she…" the other one pondered.

"Boo." Maria said, smiling at them.

"AAAAHHHH! GHOST GIRL! SHE'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL!" the soldiers ran off, screaming.

"Right, let's go inside before another patrol comes." Akemi said. They ran in through a side entrance, which led down a corridor.

"It'll take us forever to look around…" Hikari sighed.

"No, it won't!" they heard a voice. Rouge flapped down out of nowhere, and landed in front of them.

"I heard Shadow was caught, so I knew you guys would get here eventually." she said.

"Wait, you know the way around this place?" Tachi asked.

"Of course. To get to the lab, where Shadow is, you have to turn left at the next corridor, open the third door, turn right down the stairs, go left past the cells, go down the steps some more, dodge Heavy Dog, and you're done!" Rouge explained. There was a sound of crickets chirping as everyone stared at her.

"Don't tell me, I have to lead you there…" she sighed.

"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" Blade grumbled.

"Hey, we're Team Tesco! We can do anything if we put our minds to it!" Tachi barked, wagging her tail.

"Excuse me? Did you just say Team Tesco?" Rouge asked, trying not to laugh. Tachi nodded happily, and the bat sniggered.

"It's not our fault Tachi named the team!" Akemi shouted.

"Whatever, let's go before some soldiers appear." the team followed after Rouge, who led them though a very long maze of doors, corridors and stairs.

"Are we there yet?" Hikari panted, after 15 minutes.

"Nearly. But we still have to dodge Heavy Dog."

"Heavy Dog? Is that a pet Chihuahua or something?" Hikari wondered.

"No, it's a big robot that shoots out loads of missiles, drops bombs, and it has a powerful particle cannon attack."

"So it's not a dog?"

"Nope. It looks nothing like a dog."

"That's a pity."

They continued walking until they reached a wide basement area with raised platforms. A door, clearly marked, 'Lucas' lab, please knock' was on the far side of the room.

"Well, that's strange. No one's here." Hikari said, peering around.

What looked like a tumbleweed blew past as Team Tesco stared at the door.

"Heavy Dog could be anywhere…" Rouge muttered. Akemi looked around.

"Well, I don't see it." he said. He walked to the door, and then jumped back as a large robot drove in front of him.

"What do you think this place is? A day-care centre?" the guy driving the robot shouted.

"I'm not a kid!" Akemi yelled back.

"You kids are all arrested for trespassing! I don't know how you got past the security, but you're not getting past me!" the pilot laughed. Loud guitar music, with random screaming began to play, and everyone held their ears in pain as a song played.

'YOU KNOW YOUR TIME'S UP WHEN HE'S ABOUT!

CRIMINALS WILL DESPAIR AND SHOUT!

HE'S THE GUY THAT DRIVES A FREAKING TANK THAT'S NAMED AFTER A CHIHUAHUA!

HE'LL KNOCK YOU OUTTT….

IT'S HEAVY METAL DOG DUDE! *guitar solo*

Akemi sweatdropped, as the pilot head banged to the music.

"Yes, they call me Heavy Dog, but my nickname is Heavy Metal Dog Dude." the pilot explained.

"What…the…heck…?"

"My ears!" Maria shouted.

"QUIET!" everyone turned to look at Tachi, who had jumped unto a platform, and was now standing epically on it, with her ears waving.

"None of us like heavy metal! We're gonna take you down in a fight!" she shouted. Heavy Metal Dog Dude grinned.

"You and what army? All I see is a bunch of kids that should be in school."

"Well, it's the summer holidays…and we're Team TESCO! NOTHING CAN STOP US!" Tachi did a backflip, turned into a feral jackal, and howled.

"Team Tesco? Wow, I'm really scared…you lot should have picked a better team name, like Team Attack Of the Invisible Retreating Cows!" Heavy Metal Dog Dude suggested.

"We would have been called Team Ninja Owls With Missiles, but SOMEONE forced us to have the name Team Tesco." Akemi glared up at Tachi, who sweatdropped.

"That's bad. Now, I think it's time for me to do my job and arrest you children!" Heavy Metal Dog Dude laughed, clanging forward. Tachi jumped on top of the robot, and started destroying the cannons.

"Take this!" she shouted. Hikari turned to the rest of Team Tesco.

"Are we just going to let Tachi fight by herself? NO WAY! LET'S DO THIS! TEAM TESCO FOR THE WIN!" Hikari cried, charging forward with Blade and Akemi. Maria facepalmed, and followed after them.

Hikari flipped out her frying pan, and dashed at the robot, and started beating it. Akemi did the same, and Blade jumped up and used his tail to slash at the cannons.

"Do you think we should help?" Maria asked Rouge.

"I think they can handle it…or wait! Guys, wait!" Rouge shouted, flying towards the fighting teens.

"He's got a particle beam cannon!" she shouted.

"A what?" Hikari asked.

"Particle beam cannon! A big shockwave that electrocutes anything that touches it!"

"Charging particle beam cannon!" Heavy Metal Dog Dude shouted, in the cockpit.

"Retreat!" Hikari called. They ran off, except for Tachi, who was still destroying cannons, not noticing the blue glow appearing.

"Tachi! Get down!" Blade shouted, turning around. Tachi stopped, and looked at him puzzled.

"Why? I've nearly got all the guns off this thing!" she said stubbornly. Blade panicked as he saw the blue glow get brighter, and jumped onto the robot, knocking Tachi off.

"Particle beam cannon, FIRE!" Heavy Metal Dog Dude yelled, pressing a button. Blade got hit by the shockwave, and fell off the robot, next to Tachi.

"You idiot…you should have listened to me…" he said, passing out. Everyone ran over to him.

"Blade! Are you ok?" Hikari asked. Rouge shook her head, and stared at her.

"Of course he's not ok! He got zapped by a particle beam cannon!" she said.

"Now, will you kids give up? It's useless fighting." Heavy Metal Dog Dude said. Tachi snarled at him.

"OH NO YOU DIDN'T!" she yelled, changing into a giant light brown wolf with orange eyes and red claws. She jumped at the robot, growling.

"Oh crap." Heavy Metal Dog Dude muttered. He quickly pressed a button, and some missiles flew towards Tachi, who whimpered. Then there was a bright flash, and the missiles were destroyed. Shadow landed in front of Heavy Dog, smirking. His bands were back on, and his injury was gone.

"Shadow! You're here!" Hikari yelled in shock.

"Yes. Now I'm going to teach Heavy Dog a lesson he won't forget." he replied, summoning some Chaos spears. Heavy Metal Dog Dude's eyes twitched.

Needless to say, the poor soldier was owned by Shadow, Tachi and Hikari's frying pan. After the fight, Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport everyone back to Takeshi's place. The vet nearly had a heart attack when everyone appeared in his office.

"That was one tough mission." Akemi said, 15 minutes later, in the waiting room.

"Well, maybe next time, we'll have a better team name…honestly, Team Tesco…" Hikari grumbled. Maria looked at Shadow, who was standing in the corner of the room, with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

"Are you ok, Shadow? You haven't said anything for a while." she said. Shadow didn't say anything, he just flicked his ears.

"If this is about Chris, I don't fancy him!" she continued.

"….." went Shadow.

"Ok, I admit he is annoying most of the time."

"….."

"You're upset, aren't you?" Maria sighed, going over to the hedgehog, and petting his head.

"….snore…." Shadow snored.

"…you've been asleep the whole time, haven't you?"

"…..snore….hmmmm….yawn…" Shadow yawned.

"Shadow can sleep standing up?" Hikari gasped.

"Yeah, but it's hard to tell when he does it."

Takeshi walked out of his office, and Tachi ran over to him.

"Is Blade going to be alright?" she asked, bristling her fur up. Takeshi nodded.

"The particle beam cannon only knocked him out. But it could have been worse." he said. Tachi sighed in relief.

Meanwhile, in Westopolis, a certain spiky haired annoyance was walking home. It was early evening outside, and not many people were around. Chris walked past an alleyway, then stopped as he sensed someone watching him.

"Hello?" he asked, nervously. A dark furry blur shot out from the alleyway, and dragged him into the shadows.

"AHHHHH!" Chris yelled.

_It looks like the wolf's got him!_

_Question: But who is it? Send in your theories!_

Chris: Helllllp! *is being attacked*

_As for_ _Heavy Metal Dog Dude, it came to me when I was playing Shadow the Hedgehog on PS2 last week. _


	10. A mystery solved!

_Huzzah, another chapter! Thanks to all the reviewers!_

_Darkrose826-No, but you'll find out in this chapter! *cough, a few more chapters before your OC appears, cough*_

_Captain Hande-Great job, you made Samuel mad at me…at least I have a Commander proof door. *sips tea, and watches Samuel's attempts to break in*_

_Disclaimer: *boots it up high into atmosphere*_

Chapter 9: A mystery solved!

*theme song plays*

Tachi stirred in her sleep as she heard some yelping. She sighed, and got out of the chair she was sleeping in before, and walked out of the waiting room to investigate the noise.

"It's probably Shadow again…" she thought, feeling sorry for the hedgehog. As she passed some other rooms, a rather cranky Shadow whipped a door open.

"Who's making that racket?" he shouted, fur roughed up and quills bristling.

"So it's not you?" Tachi asked.

"No! But this is the first time I've been able to get a bit of sleep, without Reimaru chatting away about the future!"

"Aren't you supposed to be the Ultimate Lifeform, or something like that?"

"Yes, and even though I don't need to sleep that often, I STILL DON'T WANT TO BE WOKEN UP AT OH MY CHAOS 0'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!" Shadow yelled. Lights switched on, and there was a sound of grumbling.

"SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" Hikari shouted through her door.

"Yeah, we aren't all Ultimate Lifeforms!" Akemi added.

"It looks like you woke everyone up." Tachi said.

"I don't care!"

"Shadow! Shush! It's 4 in the morning!" Maria said, sticking her head out into the corridor.

"Fine…I'll go back to bed…" the moody hedgehog muttered, closing his door.

Tachi continued down the corridor, even though the noise had stopped. She stopped outside Blade's room, and opened the door. The rat was tossing and turning in his sleep.

"Spark! No! Come back!" he shouted. Tachi hurried over, and woke him up.

"Ahhhh!" Blade yelled, jumping up.

"Blade, it was just a dream!" Tachi said. Blade calmed down.

"Thanks, Tachi…I guess my past won't allow me to sleep." he said.

"Past? What happened to you anyway?" Tachi asked. Blade looked away.

"I don't want to talk about it…" he muttered.

"Would it explain why you keep on shouting, 'Spark'?"

"….Spark. I miss him." Blade sighed.

"What happened?"

"We were on the run together, and I was caught by bounty hunters…I don't know what happened to Spark, but when I escaped, I couldn't find him. He's only eleven…" Blade explained sadly.

"Oh…I'm sorry." Tachi apologised.

"Don't be, it's not your fault…I should be out there, looking for him."

"Blade?"

"Yes? What is it?" Blade asked.

"Well…I just wanted to say thanks for saving me from that particle beam cannon…if you hadn't knocked me out of the way, I would probably be nothing but a twitching ball of fur." Tachi smiled.

"Just please, make sure you listen next time."

"…And…I'll help you look for Spark! We could go out tomorrow!" Tachi cheered.

"Thanks."

The next day, Shadow sat in his room, quietly reading a book, when Hikari kicked in the door.

"Come on Shadow! You have to see this!" she shouted. Shadow found himself being dragged down to the waiting room, where the rest of the group (and some random people with their pets) were watching the TV. It was a news report.

"I'm reporting live from Westopolis, where there has been a serious animal attack. At 8:34pm last evening, a young teenager was attacked by a wild animal. Thankfully, he was saved by this heroic man, who called for an ambulance." the reporter on the TV turned to a man who had light black hair, and brown eyes. He was wearing normal every day clothes.

"So tell us what happened, sir." the reporter asked.

"Well, I was walking past this alleyway, when I heard screaming. I quickly went to see what was going on and…" here the man paused for dramatic effect.

"And?"

"I saw it…it was a huge jet black beast, big as a horse, and it had teeth and claws the size of daggers!" the man whispered, his eyes widening.

"What kind of creature was it?"

"It was a…wolf. With glowing ruby red eyes!" the man cried. There was some gasps and whispers among the audience.

"So what did you do next?" the reporter asked.

"Well, I saw that the wolf was mauling a young boy, so I got my rifle out, and shot it in the side!" the man shouted, waving his gun.

"And then?"

"It ran off, whimpering, and I called for an ambulance, because the boy looked like he'd been used like a chew toy by that thing." the man finished. The reporter turned back to the camera.

"Citizens should be aware it is very rare for wolves to attack people, and be seen without a pack. However, it is advised that people be careful when travelling out late, and they do not go down any alleyways or back routes. GUN are trying to track down the wolf, but until then, the streets are not safe. This is Scarlet, reporting for Station Square News." the reporter finished.

Back in the waiting room, Shadow turned to Hikari.

"I know that wolf. It chased me down the road." he muttered.

"You're lucky to be alive!" Hikari cried.

"I wonder why this wolf is attacking people?" Maria pondered. Blade, who was sitting in a chair, clenched his fists.

"I have to find that boy, and ask him where the wolf was!" he shouted.

"Why do you want to find the wolf?"

"That is none of your concern, human girl!" Blade jumped up and ran out of the room. Tachi sighed, and went after him.

Takeshi came into the room, holding a phone, and everyone looked up.

"It's for Maria." he said, giving her the phone.

"Hello? Oh, hi Chris! You sound a bit poorly." she said. Shadow bared his teeth, even though no one noticed.

"What…you're in the hospital…I'll be right there!" Maria gave the phone back to Takeshi, and Shadow walked up to her.

"Are you actually going to go to the hospital to visit that annoyance in red?" he asked.

"Yes! He nearly died when the wolf attacked him!"

"It's a pity that wolf didn't finish him off." Shadow muttered. Maria stared at him.

"I can't believe you said that!" she shouted.

"He isn't worth the bother, so you shouldn't go."

"Shadow…give Chris a break. He nearly got eaten."

"Why didn't that wolf finish the job?" Shadow muttered. Blade came back in.

"If you're going to the hospital, I need to come!" he said.

"Yeah, and I'll come as well!" Tachi barked. Shadow watched as they walked out, and he sighed to himself.

"What's up, jealous?" Rouge asked, walking next to him.

"It's just that she cares so much about that kid…when he's nothing but a pain in the *BEEP*." Shadow grumbled.

"There's plenty of other girls around here. Like me." Rouge smiled, and Shadow just turned around.

"Oh come on Mr. Sunshine! It's not like anything can happen between you two."

"What?"

"Well, you're a hedgehog, and she's human." Rouge pointed out the obvious. Shadow closed his eyes.

"…."

"I'm right, aren't I?" Rouge asked. Shadow didn't reply, he just snored loudly.

"Well, that's rude. To fall asleep in a sentence." Rouge walked off in a bad mood, while Shadow opened one eye.

"That trick never fails to work." he said.

A few hours later, at the hospital, Chris was lying on a bed, with some bandages on him. There was not one 'Get Well' card. Just one that said, 'I hope you die a slow painful death!'

Chris sighed, and then looked up as Maria, Blade and Tachi walked in.

"Hi Chris! How are you feeling?" Maria asked, walking over. Chris shrugged, and felt a sudden pain in his shoulders.

"Not bad. That wolf just tossed me around, like I was a ball." he said.

"Phew…I thought when I got that phone call…" Maria trailed off.

"We'll go to the cinema, when I get out of hospital right?" Chris asked. Maria sweatdropped, and stared at the floor.

"About that….I'm sorry to say this, but…I've never fancied you. You are cute, but…you're kind of annoying sometimes…" she said carefully. Chris' mouth dropped open.

"Rejected!" Tachi sang, going to Blade for a high five, and failing epically as the rat looked puzzled. She quickly put her hand down.

"But…you…I.." Chris stammered. Then he snapped.

"It's Shadow, isn't it? That good for nothing hedgehog…" he muttered.

"It's not Shadow, it's just that I don't fancy you."

"I see. Bye, then." Chris refused to say another word, so Maria walked out.

"Kid…where did you see the wolf?" Blade asked. Chris just stared at him.

"Why should I tell you anything?" he asked. He regretted it as he found Blade's tail brushing against his throat.

"I'm a desperate rat. If you don't tell me where the wolf was, I'll tail whip you. And that would be very messy." Blade hissed, slightly moving his tail closer. Chris, eying the steel spikes right next to his throat, nodded.

"I saw the wolf in Westopolis, near the bridge." he said quickly. Blade moved his tail away, and Chris sighed with relief. Then Blade slashed his tail over Chris' head, cutting some hair off.

"Thanks. Come on Tachi, let's find Maria and get out of this place." Blade said, walking out with Tachi.

"You weren't going to actually cut that kid's throat, were you?" Tachi asked Blade, while they were walking down the corridor.

"He was getting on my nerves." Blade muttered.

"So you would have done it?"

"All I want is to see Spark again…he must be scared." Blade sighed. As they went around the corner, they saw Maria talking to the man from TV. Blade immediately pulled Tachi back, and they hid around the corner.

"I know that guy…he's the one that allowed it…" Blade whispered to Tachi.

"Allowed what?"

"Allowed them to do experiments on me and Spark…" Blade whispered back.

"OK…I have no idea what you're on about…."

"That guy is Shaun. He's bad news…if he sees us, we'll be taken back to that place…"

"Then we have to warn Maria, then!" Tachi changed into a human girl, with brown hair and the usual clothes. She turned to Blade.

"Stay here!" she said, walking up to them.

"So, you don't know anything about this wolf?" Shaun asked.

"No…but it attacked my friends…" Maria said.

"Ok. Have you seen these two rats?" Shaun asked, holding up two photos. One was of Blade, and the other picture was a small rat furry.

"…No. Why?" Maria asked.

"They're dangerous, especially the grey and white one. They can use their tails as weapons." Shaun explained.

"Nope, I haven't seen them…"

"OK. There's a reward for the person that finds them."

"Never seen them before in my life."

Tachi suddenly interrupted the conversation.

"Come on, Sapphire! We have to go!" she said, pulling a puzzled Maria with her. They walked down the corridor, and slowed down.

"Tachi, I had things under control! I wasn't going to tell him where Blade was!" Maria explained.

"If he finds out you were dead before, you can kiss your freedom goodbye." Tachi muttered.

"Well…it's only a few people who know who I am."

"Yes, that's why I didn't say your name. Where's Blade?"

On cue, Blade ran up to them.

"Shaun's gone, but we should get out of here." he said.

"Will someone please explain what's going on?" Maria demanded.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you, and Shadow wouldn't be happy."

There was a sound of crickets chirping, even though they were in a hospital.

"Wow. Really?"

"Yes…now let's go!" they ran out of the hospital.

"Right…We have to go to near the bridge. The wolf is there." Blade said.

"But don't we want to stay AWAY from the wolf? You saw what happened to Chris and those guys…" Maria muttered.

"The wolf won't hurt you guys while I'm around."

"If you say so…"

They walked though Westopolis, and reached the bridge. Blade turned down a back road, and started looking around.

"I don't think we have much chance of seeing a giant wolf in daylight, Blade." Maria said.

"It's not a werewolf!"

Tachi suddenly felt breath on her back. She slowly turned around, and saw the wolf's red eyes glaring at her. The wolf snarled and bared its teeth.

"Guys, I think wolfie's found us already." she said quietly to them. Blade walked slowly over.

"Don't move, or stare at him…" he whispered. Tachi nodded. Blade walked slowly over to the wolf.

"Spark…calm down, everything's going to be ok…" he said softly, taking out a packet of dog biscuits. The wolf turned and growled at him. Blade carefully threw a dog biscuit to the wolf, and it caught and swallowed it.

"See? It's just me." the rat said. The wolf's eyes turned dark blue, and it looked around in confusion.

"Arrrooow?" it pondered.

"Blade, can I move now?" Tachi asked. Blade nodded.

"OK, what's going on here, Blade?" Maria asked.

"This wolf right here is my little brother, Spark." Blade explained.

"What?" they cried. Spark growled slightly.

"He got injected with something, and it turned him into a shapeshifter, but he doesn't have much control when he changes." Blade explained. Spark whimpered, and nudged Blade with his nose. Then Blade saw that the wolf's side was bleeding a little.

"Shaun…he was the one that shot you…come on, we'll take you to a vet." the rat said, petting Spark's head. They walked down the back road.

_I bet you weren't expecting that! _


	11. Taming Spark

_Sigh, got a lame RE exam on Thursday…oh well, enjoy this chapter!_

Lucy Labrador-_I think it was a fangirl or someone…*whistles, and hides pen behind back*_

Darkrose826-_Hmm…well, Fiona and Sally aren't in this story but since they ARE annoying, look out for a shout out for you in the chapter. As for Chris, the tough bugger is hard to kill, and Maria…well, Shadow's been giving me the evil eye. The really evil 'I will fill you with lead if you even think of getting rid of Maria' look. But I wouldn't get rid of her._

Shadow: *death glares at me, and polishes a gun*

_But Rouge is fair game though!_

Chapter 10: Taming Spark!

*theme song plays*

Back at Takeshi's place, the vet hadn't been exactly thrilled to see a giant wolf come running in. Everyone stared at Spark, who was sitting down and wagging his tail nervously.

"Blade…why did you bring a killer wolf back here?" Takeshi asked.

"He's not a killer, he just wasn't in control of his emotions. When he gets scared or angry, he tends to lose it and go after any people." Blade explained, giving Spark another biscuit.

"But look at the size of him! He's the size of a horse!" Hikari shouted.

"He'll probably get a bit bigger."

Shadow glared at Spark, who whined and stopped wagging his tail.

"That wolf tried to kill me, so I guess it's only fair if I return the favour." he said darkly, approaching the growling wolf.

"Stop it! He might lose control again!"

Shadow stared at Blade, and then went to sit on a chair.

"Takeshi, can you please sort out his injury?" Blade asked.

"I can, but he's very big…"

Spark got up, barked and some sparks came off his fur. He turned into a small rat furry with blue grey fur, dark blue eyes and the same spiked tail as Blade, except the spikes on his tail were red and more shorter.

"Can you talk now?" Blade asked Spark. The small rat tried to say something, but all that came out was a bark.

"So he can't talk?" Hikari asked.

"He can, but he must have spent so long being a wolf, that he got used to barking and growling." Blade replied. They walked after Takeshi, who led them into a room with a table. Blade picked up Spark and put him on the table, but the small rat began whimpering.

"Spark, it's ok. Nothing's going to happen." Blade said. Spark quieted down as Takeshi looked at his injury.

"It doesn't look bad, but I'm going to have to take the bullet out, before he gets poisoned." he said. Spark's eyes went wide, and he looked at Blade.

"It'll help you." Blade said simply. Spark nodded.

"What's up with him? Is he scared?" Takeshi asked Blade.

"No, just worried…this brings back bad memories."

A few days later, when Spark had recovered from the operation, he was sitting in the corner of Blade's room, twitching his tail anxiously and watching Shadow, who was staring at him from a chair.

"Can you stop that Shadow? I think you're starting to freak him out." Maria said.

"That rat tried to kill me…" Shadow hissed.

"I'll distract you!"

"With what?"

Shadow sweatdropped as he saw the girl smile. Then Maria started scratching him behind his ear.

"Hey…cut that out…" Shadow muttered. Unexpectedly, he started purring, which made everyone in the room look up with 'WTH' expressions, as he put his head on Maria's lap.

"Wow. He's a big softie." Tachi said to Rouge.

"Yeah, I have to remember this trick."

"Shut up…" Shadow said quietly, still purring, and waving his tail slightly. Spark looked up as Blade walked into the room, and ran over to him, whimpering.

"Spark…if only you could start talking. Well, we'll be leaving soon, so don't worry." Blade said, giving his brother a hug.

"Hold on…you're leaving?" Tachi asked, her ears drooping.

"Yes. We can't stay here, it's only a matter of time until Shaun tracks us down and finds us. If you're lucky, he won't find you." Blade explained.

"But…there's nowhere to go…you don't have a home to go to, right?"

Blade turned away, and nodded silently.

"We don't have a home…we used to, until the person who took care of us gave us to Shaun…I thought what he was doing was good, then a few months back, he injected Spark with something…I tried to stop him, but…" Blade sighed, and stopped talking.

"Don't want to talk about it? That's OK, I have my own bad experiences with people like Shaun…" Tachi agreed.

"So you see, we have to leave!"

"What about I take you and Spark to my place? It's in the forest, near to the river."

"But-"

"I don't want any excuses! I'll take you guys there when you're ready to leave." Tachi said firmly. Blade shrugged, and nodded.

"So, who's this delightful Shaun you keep on talking about?" Rouge asked. The only reply she got was some mumbling. The bat just shrugged, and turned back to the TV she was looking at.

"In other news today, some random called Fiona was run over by a bus, and the famous Sally died a very mysterious death. It seems to be hinted that Amy, Sonic's self proclaimed girlfriend, slapped Sally to death because she was caught looking at her boyfriend. Now, to the sports news-" The reporter was cut off by a squealing Hikari, who came rushing into the room.

"Shadow, you should get out of here! My dad just came!" she shouted. Shadow flicked an ear. He really didn't want to move, as the ear scratching was rather soothing. He got up with a growl, and looked towards Hikari.

"What does he want now?" he asked.

"Well, I'm not sure, but I was under the impression that he wanted me and Akemi to return home, and he also wanted to speak to you."

Shadow ran down the stairs, and found Akemi talking to Samuel, who was by the door.

"I can't get why I can't look after Hikari…I have my own place, and I've been looking after her for years." Akemi complained.

"You're not legally an adult."

"But can't you twist the law or something? You're the Commander of GUN, for Amaterasu's sake!"

"I don't make laws, I protect them."

Shadow coughed loudly, and the Commander looked at him.

"Ah, Shadow…the very rodent I wanted to see." he said.

"What do you want now? Is it the same old thing?" Shadow glared at the grey haired man, and crossed his arms.

"No. It's something different. Everyone back at HQ are busy trying to find this wolf, so I really can't be bothered about a hedgehog at the moment. But your time will come." Samuel explained.

"I don't get why you're always after me…"

"Most people in this town believe you should be back on Prison Island, after what happened during the Black Arms invasion."

"I freaking saved the world!" the hedgehog shouted.

"True, but you destroyed 40 important buildings, just to get your memory back."

Shadow didn't reply. That invasion was still on his mind, and he really did feel sorry for destroying the buildings and killing some soldiers. Samuel continued.

"I want you to explain to me how jackal DNA was found at the places where the wolf attacked."

"What?" Shadow blinked in confusion.

"And just how did your DNA get mixed up with it? It seems the wolf's a hybrid or something, because there's some rat DNA as well." Samuel stopped talking as Shadow tried to assess the situation.

"How is this possible? My DNA shouldn't be present in another living thing!" he muttered.

"So, how? Did you get caught by Eggman?" Samuel asked.

"No…he's been laying low for a while."

"Well then, I think I shall go. I've got a wolf to put down." the Commander walked away down the road, as Shadow and Akemi stared after him with puzzled expressions.

"What do you think that was about?" Shadow asked.

"I don't know, but at least he doesn't want to arrest you now." Akemi closed the door. As the pair walked up the stairs, there was a fast movement, and the sound of footsteps running away. When they reached Blade's room, they saw a frightful sight. Everyone were on one side of the room, watching Blade, who was trying to comfort a whimpering Spark.

"Spark, what's wrong?" Blade asked. Spark dropped on the ground, whimpering and crying, not paying attention to Blade.

"He must have heard everything downstairs…" Shadow mumbled to Akemi.

"Spark, calm down!"

They turned back to the situation to see Blade shaking Spark. The small rat's eyes were beginning to flicker red, and his fur was bristling.

"Guys, I don't think this is good news." Tachi said.

"Maybe we should get out of here, while we still have the chance." Takeshi suggested, closing a book he had been reading. Blade turned to gaze at the others.

"He's right! You lot have to get out of here, Spark won't have any control when he changes!" he shouted.

"But we can't leave you here to get mauled!"

"I've got a better chance of surviving the attack! So go!" Blade waved at the door, and everyone raced out. In the street, they paused.

"I hope Blade's alright…." Hikari said, looking back at the building. Tachi growled.

"You guys stay here, I'm going to see what's going on." she dashed back inside, as everyone stared at her.

"Someone had better go after her…"

"Tachi's right. You, stay here and don't come in until it's safe." Shadow went after the jackal, as Hikari shouted after him. He scrambled up the stairs and went into Blade's room, to find Tachi staring down the black wolf. Blade was next to her, nursing a slash on his arm, and he looked stressed out.

"Shadow, you should leave. When Spark's in this wolf form, he'll kill any bystanders he sees." the rat said, not turning around. Shadow came to his side.

"What's the plan?" he asked, keeping a cautious eye on the growling wolf.

"We'll have to knock him out…he's too upset right now, to listen to me. I'll distract him, while you find the tranquilisers in the cupboard. Tachi will watch your back."

Shadow nodded, and the trio edged into a defensive position as Spark circled around them slowly, sizing up his opponents. He lunged forward at Shadow, who punched him away. As the hedgehog touched the wolf's fur, some sparks came off it and he felt a brief pain.

"What the hell was that?" he shouted to Blade, moving his hand back.

"One thing I forgot to mention…Spark has control over electricity. His fur carries an electric current that'll shock you if you touch it." Blade explained. Spark narrowed his eyes, and watched the furries. His muzzle broke into a confident grin, revealing long, curved white dagger like fangs.

"Let's put this plan into action." Shadow jumped over Spark, narrowly missing his snapping jaws. He landed next to the cupboards, and started searching through them. Spark turned back to the other critters, and ran forward at them. Blade and Tachi sprung out of the way quickly.

"Spark! I know this isn't you! Try and fight the wolf!" Blade shouted. The wolf growled as his eyes flickered blue for a fleeting instant. Then he carried on attacking.

"Shadow! Hurry up and find that drug!" Tachi yelped, dodging a swipe.

"Don't rush me!" Shadow called back, frantically searching the cupboard. He found a needle and a bottle of the tranquiliser. He quickly snapped the cap off, and drew the clear liquid into the needle.

"How much do I give him?" he yelled to Blade.

"Give him half!" Blade replied. He stumbled over something, and fell unto the floor. Spark loomed over him, showing his fangs and wagging his tail as he raised his paw to dice the rat. Blade shut his eyes.

"So…this is the end." he thought. When the attack didn't come, he opened one eye slowly. Tachi had blocked the wolf's attack, and was standing in front of him. Spark snarled, and then whimpered for a second. A dreamy look came into his eyes and he fell over, with the emptied syringe in his back. Shadow dusted himself off.

"That should keep the guy down." he said.

A few moments later, everyone were back in the room, watching Takeshi who was looking over Spark. Blade turned to Shadow.

"Thanks. You and Tachi saved my hide back there. I still can't understand why he turned so suddenly…" he said.

"About that…the Commander said something to me." Shadow explained what Samuel had told him.

"…Hmmm….well, it is likely that he has your DNA, but how did they get their hands on it…?"

"They who?"

"The people who experimented on Spark and I…he was injected with something, then shoved inside a pod…when we managed to escape, Spark found that he could shapeshift, and he was immune to electric shocks…but then he became the wolf, and attacked me and…another friend." Blade explained.

"Takeshi! Take a blood sample from Spark and see if anything freaky turns up in his DNA!" Shadow called to the vet.

"Fine…" Takeshi nodded.

That night, at 4:20 in the morning, Blade crept into the room. Spark was in his rat form, sleeping on a bed. Blade sat down in the chair by the bed, and ruffled the small rat's fur.

"I'm sorry Spark…I should have never trusted Shaun and Matt…" Blade sighed. There was a sound of light footsteps outside the room, and then the door creaked open. Blade growled as he saw a group of men walk in.

"Ah, the rat…we're just here to pick up Spark." the leader said. Blade ran at them, only to be hit by a dart. He keeled over as the group walked to Spark and lifted him out of the bed.

"Spark….no…" Blade passed out on the floor.

_Yup…I hope you noticed the small shout out for you, Darkrose! Well, you did ask politely…hmm, I know, here's Chris and Rouge. Do what you like with them._

Chris: You insane author!

_SPARKY!_

*Spark comes running into the room as a wolf*

_Would you be so kind, as to shut Chris up for a bit?_

Spark: *growls, and corners Chris*

_Well, it's going to get messy now. *screaming in background* _


	12. To the workshop!

_Yup, another chapter, and every dog has its day….*falls on desk, snoring*_

Tachi: I guess that leaves me to do the intro…*looks at notebook* ok…Darkrose, you won't be disappointed by the next chapter, and Swift's quite happy you liked the shout out. Now, let's get going with the story!

Disclaimer: *_snores loudly*_

Chapter 11: To the workshop!

*theme song plays*

The next morning, Maria found Blade on the floor, sound asleep.

"Blade? Wake up!" she said, shaking him. The rat slowly lifted his head.

"Oh…what time is it? I have a freaking headache…" he grunted.

"It's about quarter past seven now. What were you doing, passed out on the floor like that?"

Blade blinked. Then his eyes shot open wide as he remembered last night.

"Spark! He was taken by Shaun's men! I have to save him!" he shouted, getting up.

"Spark? Kidnapped? But how…?" Maria pondered. Blade told her everything.

"Shaun's men are trained to be as stealthy as ninjas. It's no surprise no one heard them break in."

"Right! We have to search for clues!" Maria shouted.

"Great, do you have detective skills?"

"Erm, no…but I did watch an episode of Castle, and some NCIS a few nights ago…"

Blade facepalmed.

A few moments later, everyone was searching the place.

"We can't risk contaminating the evidence!" Maria shouted, looking behind the sofa.

"But what do clues look like?" Tachi asked.

"They look like clues!"

Takeshi found a box that was old, and blew the dust off it, into Shadow's face by mistake.

"Watch it!" the dark hedgehog yelled.

"Sorry…anyway, this is my old fingerprint dusting kit." Takeshi explained. He pulled a tub of powder out of the box, along with a fine brush. He slowly started dusting the table for fingerprints.

"Wait! I've found something!" Hikari shouted. Everyone looked up, as she held up a copy of Okamiden.

"Hikari, is that relevant?" Shadow asked. The girl sweatdropped, and rubbed her head.

"Well, Okamiden is a good game…" she said slowly.

Tachi sniffed among the ground as a husky, trying to find any scents. On the stairs, she came across a curious looking gadget. It was black, had a screen, and was shaped like a small Sat Nav.

"Guys! Look at this!" she shouted, jumping up and down. Everyone came over, and Maria picked up the device.

"This looks new…I don't know what it is, but it's interesting." she said.

"How are we going to get it to work?" Akemi asked. Maria smiled.

"I know just the genius fox for the job." she said, getting out her mobile phone and ringing someone.

"Oh! Hi Maria! I haven't spoken to you in a while!" Tails' cheerful voice sounded on the phone.

"Hi Tails! How have you been?"

"Not bad. I invented a remote control for the fridge and kitchen cupboard!"

"Wow. So, anyway, I have a problem right now. There's a device that's been left behind by some kidnappers, and we're not too sure what it is. Could you check it out?" Maria asked.

"Oh, sure! You can get Shadow to use Chaos Control, right? I'll put the kettle on and we can look at this gadget together!" Tails said.

"See you in a bit!" Maria came off the phone.

"Since when you and the fox were best friends?" Shadow asked.

"Well, he likes technology like I do! We designed a video game together….good times." Maria daydreamed for a bit, then snapped out of it.

"OK, let's go to Tails' workshop!" she shouted, holding Shadow's hand.

Shadow took out his favourite green Chaos emerald, and held it up.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled.

Moments later, after Shadow had teleported everyone to the workshop, Tails was inspecting the gadget, his ears twitching with barely concealed excitement. He sat down, and pulled some technician goggles on, to take a closer look at the gadget. Then he finally turned to the group.

"This technology…It's very rare! Only GUN and Eggman could build something like this!" the fox said, his eyes glittering with curiosity and wonder.

"So what is it?" Shadow asked.

"It's a DNA tracking device! If you place a DNA sample, like some fur or blood in it, it'll find that person!"

"So how does it work?"

Tails began to speak technician language, and Maria joined in.

"Blah blah blah, Wasser, blah…blah!" Tails said excitedly. Of course, he didn't exactly say 'blah blah blah' but that's what everyone apart from Maria was hearing.

"That's so amazing! Blah, blah, deoxyribonucleic acid, theory of Watson and Crik, blah blah blah!" Maria shouted to Tails. The two continued their conversation, until Shadow decided he had enough. Everyone's brains were close to exploding messily everywhere, so he interrupted.

"That seems great, but you're forgetting that we have a little rat to save." he said.

"We can use the DNA tracker to find Spark! I just have to charge it, then we'll set out tomorrow!" Tails said brightly.

That night, Maria was reading a book, when she heard scuffling and turning. She turned from the desk she was at, and she saw Shadow in his bed, muttering and baring his fangs. She hurried over as the hedgehog started groaning.

"Shadow? Are you ok?" she asked. Shadow just turned over.

"Pain…cannot…escape darkness…it'll get us…" Shadow groaned.

"Shadow! You have to wake up!" Maria shook him.

"The darkness…it's cold…" Shadow muttered. Maria placed her hand on his head, and was alarmed to feel that he was very hot.

"You must have a fever…I'll get Takeshi!" she ran out of the room.

A few minutes later, everyone were gathered around Shadow's bed.

"How long has he had these dreams?" Takeshi asked Maria.

"For a few weeks…" she muttered back.

"It seems that these dreams are giving him pain. I'll give him some drugs to soothe it, and bring his fever down." Takeshi said.

*Shadow's dream*

Shadow was running as fast as he could through the blackness of his dream, away from the evil laughter that followed after him. It wasn't Reimaru, so he had a feeling that this person wasn't exactly friendly. He slowed down to take some deep breaths, and then growled as some glowing green eyes appeared in front of him.

"Heh heh heh…you cannot escape me, Shadow." the owner of the eyes spoke.

"Who are you?" Shadow snarled.

"I was your shadow…and soon, I will return to power…I offer you the last chance of joining me. Do you accept?"

"Hell. No."

"That's it, then…you could have ruled over time and space. Now I will kill you, and possess your body…but not after making you watch your girlfriend die!"

"Leave Maria out of this!" Shadow yelled.

"I think I'll have some fun. Farewell, and drown in darkness!" the mysterious person shot a dark laser at Shadow.

Tachi: Hmm, end of chapter…it says here on this list, that you're supposed to guess who the new villain is, even though you reviewers probably know. And Darkrose826…. just look out in the next chapter, ok?

_Cookies….RE exam…sigh….*snores*_


	13. Meeting Ace!

_I FINISHED MY RE EXAM, AND EPICALLY OWNED IT! (I think)_

_So that means I'm free to relax, play games and type._

Tachi: Work experience, Swift! Work experience and that ICT Controlled Assessment!

_Oh, sod it._

Disclaimer_: I don't own any official characters, just my OCs…but wait, what's this? I don't own Ace, she's Darkrose826's OC!_

*loud whirring and a large tank is driven in*

_Oh great, it's Sammy…_

Samuel: Don't worry about me…I'm just here to run you over with my tank if Darkrose thinks her OC's intro is bad. *evil grin* I have to control the quality of your writing, you know?

…_.The heck?_

Samuel: *looking at notebook* On the other hand…it seems that if she's happy, then…I GET NO COFFEE? AND ICT COURSEWORK TO THE HEAD?

Chapter 12: Meeting Ace!

*theme song plays*

*Shadow's dream*

The dark hedgehog was still in the darkness of his dreams, trying to wake up.

"I have to get out of here!" he thought, concentrating intensely. Nothing happened, so he sighed and sat down.

"Just what is going on? Was Reimaru right about this 'darkness'?" he pondered.

"I bet you believe me now." Reimaru's voice called from behind Shadow. The hedgehog turned around, and saw the fox in his human form, looking incredibly smug.

"I did say you should listen to me. I bet you regret it now." the demon fox laughed. Shadow jumped up and glared at him.

"I know you have something to do with this!" he shouted. Reimaru shrugged.

"You shouldn't be worried about me, you should be worried about the other guy."

"That person…who is he?" Shadow asked. Reimaru turned around.

"He is the one that's trying to destroy time and space…yes, he's Mephiles…"

"Mephiles? That name…" Shadow muttered.

"Having a conversation, are we?"

They turned to see a pair of glowing green eyes watching them. Reimaru snarled, flattening his ears down, while Shadow glared back.

"Reimaru you sneaking fox…I was so kind as to resurrect you from the Dark Forest, and you repay me by refusing to listen to my plans, and telling them to Shadow! You will pay when I am done with him…." Mephiles growled.

"For the record, I've been summoned from the Dark Forest more times than I care to remember. I would rather team up with the annoying emo hedgehog, than help you undo history!" Reimaru snapped.

"I wouldn't be so snappy right now…you're forgetting that I have control over your powers now…"

"Parasite!" Reimaru spat.

"I could cause you more pain, if you want…" Mephiles said.

"I don't care! I've had worse!"

Reimaru howled in pain suddenly, and slumped over. Shadow looked at him with concern. If Mephiles could send a demon fox into fits of agony, then maybe he wouldn't be able to fight him. He turned back to Mephiles.

"I think it's time I disposed of you…" Mephiles hissed. Shadow backed away.

"What did I do to deserve this?" he asked.

"I don't have to tell you…" Mephiles said, walking to Shadow. A green flame appeared, and Shadow saw a dark blue hedgehog with grey stripes like his, holding the flame.

"You…" he began.

"If you even say 'fake hedgehog' I will make your death immensely painful and slow." Mephiles interrupted him. Then he grinned.

"Your death will be slow anyway." he sprung at Shadow, but at the same time, Reimaru jumped up and whacked Mephiles away.

"You need to get out of here." Reimaru said to Shadow.

"What about you?"

"I'm near death anyway. Listen now, this is important. You must trust Blade, and he'll lead you to the Crystal Cave, where Mephiles will be. You must defeat him, or he'll try and kill you." Reimaru explained.

"You're not going to help?"

"I'll just slow you down…farewell, and may Ninetails be with you!"

There was a bright flash.

Back in the real world, Maria was sitting by Shadow's bed, looking worried.

"Shadow…please wake up soon…" she muttered. Right on cue, Shadow yawned and opened his eyes sleepily.

"What a dream…at least, it felt like one…" he said.

"You're awake!"

The poor hedgehog found himself in a bear hug.

"Are you ok? You must have been freaked out!" Maria said.

"Maria…choking, not breathing!" Shadow gasped. She quickly broke up the hug.

"Sorry…I'll go and get Takeshi!" she ran out of the room. Shadow sighed, and waited until Takeshi came back in with Maria.

"How do you feel?" Takeshi asked Shadow.

"Fine, but I really-" Shadow was interrupted as a spoon was shoved in his mouth. He spat the spoon out, and glared at Takeshi, who was holding a bottle.

"I'm going to prescribe this medicine to you. You have to take exactly two spoonfuls every day for two weeks." the vet explained.

"But that's stupid! I am the ultimate life form, immune to all illnesses!" Shadow grumbled.

"Shadow, we both know that…" Maria muttered.

"And that stuff tastes horrible!"

"Well, you can take it or you can fall into a near coma again. I'd recommend you take it." Takeshi said.

"But why two spoonfuls?"

"It won't work if you take just the normal dose."

"Fine…" Shadow hissed, taking the bottle from Takeshi.

"Well, I have to get back to my office, so call me if you need anything. Maria, please make sure he takes it." Takeshi said, walking out.

"I guess you should have another dose." Maria said. Shadow sighed and took another spoonful of the medicine. He immediately flattened his ears in disgust, and said some very rude words under his breath.

"So, where are everyone?" he asked.

"Well, the others are still downstairs, but Tachi, Akemi and Hikari have gone out to find a friend of Tachi's that can help us."

"Hasn't Tails sorted his device out as yet?"

"Yeah, he has but the place…while you were knocked out, Tachi went and scouted around for us. She came back, and said there's a lot of security and the place is well hidden."

"So we're leaving when the others come back?"

"Everyone else is going, but you're staying here. Tails and I are staying as well."

"But…"

"No buts! You need to stay and recover your strength."

Shadow sighed, picked up a book that was on the nearby desk, and started reading.

"_It seems that I am stuck here, reading crappy Twilight novels."_ he thought.

Meanwhile, in the forest, Tachi was weaving though the undergrowth with ease. She turned to look back.

"Come on, hurry up!" she called to some tired looking teenagers. Hikari was leaning against a tree for support, panting, while Akemi was trying not to faint from the heat.

"Why…Amaterasu? Why have you cursed us with a hyperactive jackal?" he asked the sky, almost praying.

"Hurry up, you slowpokes! We're nearly there!" Tachi ran off again, as Hikari and Akemi tried to keep up.

They soon came into a camp, where there was some velociraptors wandering around. A familiar fox furry was near a tent, talking to a jaguar furry, who had dark yellow fur with black spots. She had grey eyes, brown hair tied in a ponytail, and she was wearing a denim jacket with a white shirt, and jeans.

"Oh? Who's…oh, it's Hikari and Akemi. I haven't sensed your presence for a while." the fox greeted them.

"Brook! How are you doing?" Hikari asked.

"Fine, I guess…some old guy's been hanging around lately, but yeah…" Brook trailed off, and twitched her ears.

"I sense a very…strong powerful aura…" she muttered. Out of the blue, the random old guy teleported in.

"Oh, will you youngsters have some respect! I'm not old, I've just been 40 for a long time!" he cried.

"ZOMG, look Akemi, it's that ancient dude I was telling you about!" Hikari shouted. The random turned around slowly.

"What did you just say?" he asked, his eye twitching. Hikari quickly realised she was in dangerous territory.

"Erm…I said, radically cool dude, not ancient dude." she said quickly.

"I might be dead, but I can still hear ya!" the old (angry yell is heard) I mean, cool guy poofed away.

"Well, that was random. Who was that old-" the jaguar struggled to speak as Hikari covered her mouth.

"Shadow fears that guy. Enough said." she whispered. The jaguar nodded slowly, and Hikari backed away.

"So…who is she?" Akemi asked, pointing at the jaguar.

"I'm Ace! Pleased to meet you." the jaguar introduced herself.

"Well, I'm Akemi, and this is my annoying little sister, Hikari."

"I'm not annoying!" Hikari shouted.

"So, why are you lot here? Has Samuel been causing trouble or something?" Brook asked.

"No, the problem's worse." Tachi explained what the problem was briefly.

"So, we need your help, and Ace's help too." she finished.

"We'll help you find Spark. Blade must be upset…" Ace said.

"Right, let's get back."

"Wait, hang on…" Brook said. She made a hissing noise, and Strike ran up.

"Honk?" he asked.

"Hsssss, hssss growl." Brook growled. Strike nodded, screeched to the other velociraptors, who were watching.

"What did you say?" Ace asked Brook.

"I just asked Strike to come with me, and he told the other raptors that he was going." she explained.

"Couldn't you have said that in normal English?"

"Yeah, I could, but…I've been speaking velociraptor for all my life." Brook muttered.

"Are we going or not?" Tachi shouted from the bushes. They hurried after her.

_So please, send in your reviews! I don't want to be run over by a tank!_

Samuel: *evil laugh*


	14. Return of Team Tesco!

_Sorry for not updating sooner! You probably thought I was squashed by Sammy's tank…nope, it's family issues. I won't give up, though!_

Chapter 13: The return of Team Tesco!

*theme song plays*

Everyone were back at Tails' workshop, planning out their attack on the mysterious place where Spark was being kept.

"OK, people. This place is crawling with armoured guards, guard dogs and flashlights. But that's the easy part. When we actually break in, we should split into two groups. One group will rescue Spark, while the others will distract the guards. If we're lucky, we'll get out without any injuries. If not…we'll get to that later." Tachi explained, pointing out exits on a map of the base.

"Tachi, do you know what you're doing?" Akemi asked.

"Yes, I do. I've escaped from a place like this before, so I know the security system. Blade can also show us around."

"This will make sneaking around the GUN bases look like a piece of cake. These guys won't hesitate to shoot kids, because the place is supposed to be secret." Blade added.

"It seems easy to me." Ace said, shrugging.

"You'll have to keep your wits about you if you want to survive."

"I have an idea!" Hikari shouted. They turned to look at her.

"Oh yeah? Do tell us."

"We should get my dad to help!" Hikari announced. Everyone, even Tails, stared at her, then started complaining.

"We can't! As soon as we get out of the base, he'll find some silly excuse, like trespassing, to arrest us!" Tachi howled.

"I really don't think we should ask him, he sounds like a crazy guy." Ace agreed.

"If he finds out Spark's the wolf that's been killing people, he'll shoot him or worse!" Blade panicked.

"Ok, ok, calm down!" Hikari shouted. Everyone stopped talking.

"Maybe you guys are right." she said.

"We should prepare to go." Tachi said, rolling the map back up. Everyone started packing their things.

After they were done, Tachi quickly went over the plan, and they headed out to the base. Upstairs, Shadow watched them go. He turned away, and stared at his Chaos emerald for a bit, and thought to himself.

In a deserted part of the forest, the group were hiding outside a large building, which had a fence around it. Tachi looked at them.

"Well, this is it…once we come out of these bushes, we're past the point of returning." she said. Hikari got out her frying pan.

"Let's show those guys we're not just normal teenagers!" she shouted.

"TEAM TESCO, FOR THE WIN!" Tachi howled.

"Wait, wait…" Ace interrupted, and everyone turned to look at her.

"Did you just say, Team Tesco?"

"Yes…what's wrong with the team name?" Tachi asked.

"Nothing…" Ace said, trying not to laugh.

They advanced forward slowly, keeping a careful eye out for any guards. Blade silently cut a hole in the fence with his tail, and they crept though.

"Which way now, Blade?" Brook asked.

"This way…watch out for the searchlights!" Blade led them to the back of the building. There were some lights shining down on the yard, but the team managed to avoid them.

"Tachi, I think you overestimated the security in this place. I mean, we haven't seen a single guard so far." Hikari whispered.

"I know what I saw!"

"Guys…" Ace said slowly. They turned around to find some guards with ninja like masks pointing guns at them.

"Did you honestly think you could just walk in here?" One of them asked.

"Yes, and we're going to walk all over you!" Hikari shouted, lifting her pan. She was about to attack when Blade stopped her.

"Don't. These guards are Shaun's trained guards…they're like ninjas…" he said hastily.

"No, we are ninjas!" the guard cried.

"Yeah, right…what kind of ninjas need guns?" Ace scoffed.

"It's a digital age, kid! You've got to get with the times!"

"Hsss." Brook hissed to Strike. The velociraptor hissed back, and ran off into the darkness.

"We'll give you teens a chance to get out of here. I'll start counting from ten." the guard grinned. He started counting.

"Ten…nine…"

There was some scuffling, and then the sound of something being dragged away.

"Eight, seven.."

There was a loud gasp, and then a thud from behind the guard.

"Six, five…"

A small yell was heard, and the sound of growling.

"Four, three-"

The guard yelled out, as he was dragged away by Strike. Hikari sweatdropped as the raptor came back, wagging his tail.

"Well…let's head in, then…" she muttered to Tachi. The small group walked through the back door of the building, and found themselves in a corridor.

"We'll split up here! Akemi and Hikari, you're coming with me, while Blade leads Brook, Strike and Ace. We'll meet here in ten minutes."

"Ten minutes? Are you sure that's enough time?" Ace asked.

"Yeah…this place isn't too big." Blade replied. Everyone headed their separate ways.

"So Blade, where do you think Spark is?" Brook wondered.

"He'll be somewhere down in the basement, I think."

In the following minutes that passed, the group managed to dodge patrolling ninja guards, and got down to the basement. They walked in, and Blade saw Spark lying on a table. He hurried over. Spark looked different, as his fur was completely black, his ears were longer, and the metal spikes on his tail were longer, and were darker red.

"Spark! What happened to you… please, wake up!" Blade shouted, shaking Spark. The rat slowly woke up.

"Huh…? Oh, good morning Blade." Spark yawned.

"It's not morning! Come on, we're getting out of here."

Strike suddenly hissed, and clicked his claws. Shaun walked towards Blade, smiling sinisterly.

"So Blade…you finally show up. How does it feel to be back home?" he asked. Blade just growled.

"I can see you're still the same rat." Shaun continued, turning to look at Brook and Ace.

"Who are you?" Brook asked, her eyes squinting.

"I'm Shaun. That's all you need to know. Sadly, since you've gotten involved in this situation now, I'm going to have to dispose of you three…sorry." Shaun took a gun out from his pocket, and pointed it at Brook.

"What's he doing?" Brook asked Ace in a hurry.

"Get out of the way!" Ace shouted. Brook dodged out of the way as Shaun fired his gun, and waved her staff.

"That isn't honourable! Taking a gun out on a blind person!" she yelled.

"You're blind? I feel sorry for you, really I do." Shaun took aim again, but was suddenly knocked back by an orb of dark energy.

"Ow…" he muttered. Brook frowned, pricking up her ears.

"Ace, did you just use a power or something?" she asked.

"Yeah, I did."

"Oh…that explains why your aura's powerful."

"We really should be leaving you know, not talking."

They hurried out, and found a thick crowd of ninja guards outside, waiting for them.

"Isn't this just great?" Ace muttered angrily.

"Hss." Strike agreed.

The guards charged forward, and a fight broke out. Brook hit some guards over the head with her staff, while Ace fired some more dark energy orbs, and Strike kicked away any guards that came near him. Blade turned to Spark.

"I need you to find Tachi, and get out of here. We can handle this." he said.

"But Blade…I can help too!" Spark insisted. Blade shook his head.

"Get out of here!" he growled, jumping into the fight. Spark nodded, and ran off, but his path was blocked by Shaun, who had recovered.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, pointing his gun at Spark.

"You wouldn't shoot an innocent kid, would you?" Spark backed away, fear in his eyes.

"EVERYONE! STOP NOW!" Shaun shouted. Everyone stopped fighting, and looked at Shaun.

"You teenagers are coming with me…if you fight back, I'll shoot Spark." he said.

"Fine…we surrender." Ace sighed.

"Good…now, follow me. I think there might be some use for you lot…" Shaun walked off, as they followed after him. He shoved them into a big prison cell, where Tachi, Hikari and Akemi were sitting in a circle. They looked up as Shaun slammed the door shut and locked it.

"No way…you guys got caught too?" Blade asked. Tachi nodded.

"Those guards…they were well prepared." she muttered. Hikari stood up.

"We can't just sit around doing nothing! We must put Plan B into action!" she shouted.

"And what is Plan B? We break out of here?" Ace asked. Hikari just grinned, and took out her mobile phone.

"It's a good thing I charged it." she said, pressing some buttons.

"Who are you going call?"

"Hi dad? Yeah, it's me…" Hikari said into the phone. Tachi facepalmed, but she couldn't do anything.

"What do you mean, I have to call more?" Hikari asked. She held the phone away from her ear, as there was some angry ranting.

"Yes, yes…I know I shouldn't be with Shadow…but, er, a small thing has come up. I'm locked in a cell with some other people in a building in the Mystic Forest…could you like, get down here and rescue us?" Hikari said slowly. She quickly pulled the phone away from her ear, but she didn't need to, as you could still hear Samuel's furious shout.

"THIS IS WHY I TELL YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM THAT HEDGEHOG! YOU DON'T LISTEN! YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN I GET THERE!" Samuel shouted.

"But…I do listen…" Hikari muttered. Her hair started flying back as Samuel yelled some more, and even Ace was looking surprised.

"DON'T TALK BACK! YOU CAN'T EVEN RESCUE YOURSELF! DAMM IT, I PAID FOR KARATE LESSONS! THAT'S TWENTY DOLLARS WORTH OF KARATE!" Samuel roared.

"But-"

"NO BUTS! I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO GO AND FIND THAT CURSED DEMON HEDGEHOG NOW, TO GET HIM TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO LISTEN TO ME!"

"No-"

"YOU'RE NOT IN A POSITION TO MAKE COMMANDS! NOW, GOOD BYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE!" Samuel slammed his phone down.

"I feel sorry for you Hikari." Ace said.

"Yeah…I think he ran out of coffee, that's why he's so cranky."

At the GUN base, Paul was listening outside Samuel's office, cringing at the swearing.

"If we don't fix that coffee maker soon, he's going to lose it…" he muttered. There was some rapid firing, and a GUN recruit was kicked out of the office.

"Ow…Paul, please go and tell Lucas to hurry up with that coffee machine…" he muttered. Paul nodded. He had to get things back to normal. He snapped to attention as the Commander came out, looking very grumpy.

"YOU! DON'T LIE AROUND ALL DAY!" he shouted at the recruit, who nodded and ran off. Then he turned to Paul.

"STOP STANDING AROUND LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE, AND GET YOUR THINGS, WE'RE GOING ON A TRIP!" Samuel shouted at Paul. The poor guy quickly ran off, before he could get shouted at more.

_I'M STILL ALIVE!_

_A note: That crazy Sammy's on the loose. Hide your coffee. Set traps._


	15. TeamCoffee?

_HOORAY, I'M STILL ALIVE! *loud yelling in background* Hmm…yeah, I think I better go and hide from that crazy dude. He still hasn't got his coffee._

Captain Hande: _I guess I could use the coffee as a trap…*carefully sets up trap with coffee as bait* _

Chapter 14: Team…Coffee?

*theme song plays*

Back at Tails' workshop, Shadow was curled on the sofa, asleep. He rolled out of the chair in shock as there was a loud banging at the door.

"I wonder who could be around at this time…" he thought, getting up to open the door. But he didn't need to. The dark hedgehog stared as the door was kicked in, and Samuel came rushing in.

"OK, SHADOW! YOU BETTER TELL ME HOW HIKARI MANAGED TO GET LOCKED IN A PRISON CELL!" he shouted in Shadow's face.

"She got caught?" Shadow wondered. He nearly jumped out of his fur as Samuel started bellowing again.

"YES SHE DID, AND IT'S THANKS TO YOU FOR LEADING HER ASTRAY!"

A very tired looking Maria and Tails came down the stairs to see what was going on.

"Samuel, it's too early…can't you come back later?" Maria asked.

"NO, I CAN'T! THANKS TO SHADOW HERE, I HAVE TO GO AND SAVE HIKARI NOW!" Samuel shouted, freaking Maria out.

"Cranky, much?"

"DON'T CALL ME CRANKY! I'VE HAD TO SURVIVE WITHOUT COFFEE FOR EIGHT HOURS! YES, EIGHT HOURS!"

Paul and some soldiers slowly came in.

"Oh, hey. I don't suppose you have any coffee in the kitchen? He's been screaming at us all night." Paul said.

"I think we have some coffee…let me go and check." Tails hurried off. A few moments later, he came back with a big cup of coffee.

"Here." he gave the coffee to Samuel, who gulped it down. His eye twitched.

"WHAT THE *BEEPING* HELL, FOX! YOU GAVE ME DECAFFEINATED COFFEE!" Samuel ranted.

"Oh…sorry. It looks like we're out of coffee then."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU'RE OUT OF COFFEE?"

"Look, everyone should just calm down now…" Maria tried to sort the situation out.

"HOW CAN I? HIKARI'S LOCKED UP IN A CELL SOMEWHERE, AND I DON'T HAVE ANY COFFEE!" Samuel yelled.

"Hikari's been caught? With the other guys?"

"YES, SHE HAS."

"We should come up with a plan now, then." Shadow said.

Moments later, they were sat around the table, discussing the plan.

"So…we have to sneak into the building, and rescue the others…I hope they're ok, you know." Tails muttered.

"Does that mean…I'll have to work with…HIM?" Shadow pointed at Samuel.

"I don't want to work with you either, rodent, but we have no choice!"

"We'll help too." Paul sighed, wondering if he could go on holiday.

Meanwhile, at the base, everyone were bored out of their minds. Hikari was polishing her frying pan, Tachi was trying to dig a tunnel (but so far she had only made a small dent in the floor) and everyone else were complaining.

"This sucks! You'd think they'd get us a TV or something!" Ace grumbled.

"Oh Hikari, can't we prank call Samuel?" Brook begged.

"No, we can't!" Hikari replied back. She looked over at Akemi, who was examining the locked door.

"If only I had something to pick the lock with…" he muttered.

"Don't worry! I'm digging an escape tunnel!" Tachi barked, still digging at the floor.

"Tachi, that's not going to work." Blade sighed. The jackal glared at him.

"Well, excuse me for trying to think positive and get us out of here!"

Just then, the door was unlocked, and Shaun came in.

"Spark, it's time for your training." he said. Spark nodded and got up.

"Wait just a second! Where do you think you're taking him?" Blade shouted, jumping up and standing in front of Spark.

"To his training. Don't worry, he'll be back in a hour."

"Yes, but what is this training thing?" 

"It's just to keep him occupied…" Shaun said. Blade could see that the man was hiding something, so he narrowed his eyes.

"I'm coming too."

"As you wish." Shaun walked out with Blade and Spark following. He took them outside, where there were three huge robots waiting. Spark grinned, showing sharp fangs.

"It should be easy to take them down…" he growled, approaching them.

"Spark…this isn't like you…" Blade thought. He knew that usually Spark would avoid any conflict, as he was afraid of losing control.

"A personality change…" Shaun muttered, writing down something in a book. Spark laughed as the robots clanged towards him.

"Hah! You'll never defeat me!" he shouted. The robots started firing lasers at him, but he dodged and slashed at one with his tail. It exploded, showering Shaun and Blade with ash.

"Subject seems to be more aggressive…note to self, get better robots." Shaun wrote down more notes.

"You did something to him, didn't you?" Blade snarled.

"Yes, I gave him better powers and Matt changed his personality. I'll explain later."

They watched as Spark leapt away from a robot's claws, and his fur started crackling with electricity.

"TAKE THIS!" he shouted, shocking the robot with blue electricity. It promptly exploded, fried by the power.

"I want you to explain what you did to him NOW." Blade demanded. Shaun ignored him, taking down more notes.

"Subject isn't showing any new powers." he said, scribbling in the notebook.

Spark eyed the last robot, baring his teeth.

"I'll end this quickly!" he shouted, dashing forward at the robot. It knocked him over with its arm, and charged up a laser.

"Spark!" Blade took a step forward, but he didn't need to worry. Spark's fur started crackling again, and he became a wolf, this time with red stripes on his back. He jumped up, and started shredding the robot with his claws and fangs. Blade's mouth dropped open.

"YOU! You did something freaky with his DNA again!" Blade shouted at Shaun.

"I corrected the error he had." Shaun replied, not too bothered. Spark loped over to them, and changed back.

"Those robots are gone!" he grinned, wagging his tail.

"Good. Now, go and find Matt." Shaun ordered. Spark nodded, and ran off.

"Just what is going on! Why is he acting so-" then Blade recalled what Shadow had told him.

"Take a walk with me, Blade. I'll tell you what's going on." Shaun said, beckoning to him. The rat followed after him, and they walked inside the building.

"Matt and I managed to get two DNA samples a while back, from an old friend of ours. One sample was from Tachi, and the other one was from Shadow. You know him, right?" Shaun asked. Blade nodded.

"Yes, I met-I mean, I've heard of him." he quickly said. Shaun looked at him with a suspicious expression, and then he continued.

"So, we thought…what if we could create a new ultimate lifeform, one that actually takes orders and doesn't stand around, moaning about existence? That's when Matt scanned Spark, and realised he had a high amount of Chaos energy. So we decided to use him to see if our plan would work." Shaun explained.

"You USED my brother?"

"Yes, but this is the clever part-Tachi used to be a feral jackal. Jackals are wild in nature, but when they're tamed they become very obedient. By using Tachi's DNA, and removing the other traits…like the obsession with shiny things…we could make Spark more loyal and obedient."

"You're one messed up guy."

"As for Shadow's DNA…it gave Spark that new personality, and more control over electricity. He might even be immortal, but he hasn't got any Chaos abilities."

"You're really effing crazy. And so is Matt."

"We failed to see the effect of Tachi's DNA though…it gave Spark the power to shapeshift, but it was very unstable, and thanks to you and your meddling, it gave him an uncontrollable wolf form." Shaun sighed.

"So, now you've corrected it?" Blade asked. Shaun nodded.

"But we still haven't seen Spark with Chaos abilities or more shapeshifting forms. Matt and I have decided to take some more DNA from Tachi and Shadow. Which brings us up to this moment. We already have Tachi, but we don't know how to get Shadow. I think you know how." Shaun turned to Blade.

"Me? No, I don't know anything…" Blade lied.

"You were about to say that you've met him before, and then you quickly corrected yourself. I think you have something to hide…"

"He's just a grumpy guy who's loyal to-" Blade paused as Shaun looked at him.

"Loyal to who?"

Blade cursed himself for letting his tongue slip, then he shrugged.

"Can't remember the person's name."

"That's a pity…well, I'll get it out of you somehow." Shaun led Blade into another room, and stopped beside a glass tube.

"I can't let you go back to the others, so you're staying in there." he shoved Blade in, and shut the door.

"Hey! You no good crazy guy! Let me out of here!" Blade shouted, pounding at the glass. Shaun shook his head and walked off.

"Curiosity killed the rat." he called back. Then he saw Spark at the door.

"What are you doing with Blade?" Spark demanded.

"Nothing. Just go, ok?"

Spark shrugged, and walked out. Shaun followed after him, shutting the door. As he walked down the corridor, a wave of ninja guards passed him.

"What's going on?" he asked. The leader yelled over his shoulder,

"Some people are trying to break in!"

Back with the intruders at the front of the building, Shadow was trying to break the door in, while Samuel, Maria and Paul watched.

"This door's pretty strong…" he hissed, firing a Chaos spear. It hit the door, and vanished.

"Maybe I could go and get my car, and crash the door in?" Paul suggested.

"You'll only injure yourself." Shadow tried the door again, and it opened.

"Finally!" he shouted, running inside. There was some silence, and then he was thrown out, landing on Samuel.

"Get. Off. Me." Samuel said, in a threatening tone. Shadow quickly jumped back up, and braced himself as a crowd of guards poured out of the building.

"You're trespassing on private property!" one cried.

"I don't think we can fight them all!" Paul shouted. Maria got an idea.

"You lot! Do you like coffee?" she asked.

"Sure…" the leader replied, looking puzzled.

"I bet you don't have coffee on you now!"

"We do!" the leader shouted. They all pulled out sachets of coffee.

"Is that good enough for you?"

"Yes…" Maria smiled innocently as she stepped out of the way.

"Why are you doing this?" Shadow asked. Maria pointed at Samuel, who was staring at the guards.

"HEY! SAMUEL! THEY HAVE FREE COFFEE!" she yelled loudly.

"COFFEEEEEEEEEE!" Samuel's blue eye twitched and he charged forward at the guards, looking crazy, and screaming at the same time.

"OH CRAP!" the guards shouted.

Needless to say, they were epically owned by the Commander. Who knew karate and had a machine gun.

"Ouch…" Maria winced, watching the fight.

"Oh, that looked painful…" Paul muttered as a guard was kicked into the air.

"Maria, I don't think you should have done that…" Shadow said. He looked down as a guard crawled to him.

"HELP MEEE!" he squealed. Shadow watched with pity in his eyes as the guard was dragged back into the fight by Samuel, screaming.

"I'll remember to not carry coffee with me." Maria nodded wisely. The fight was soon over, leaving a pile of battered groaning guards in a pile, and a delighted Samuel running around and picking up the coffee sachets.

"THANK YOU, SWEET AMATERASU AND GODS OF COFFEE!" he yelled up at the sky.

"Let's continue…" Paul said slowly. They walked away down the corridor.

"There's so many doors…how are we going to find the others?" Shadow asked Maria. She was about to talk, but then there was some shouting.

"OK EVERYONE! ONE, TWO, THREE!" Hikari's voice bellowed from a nearby room. A guitar started playing loudly, and Team Tesco started singing awfully.

"Good Chaos, what is that song?" Samuel asked, covering his ears.

"It sounds like the Beyblade song…" Maria muttered.

YEAH!

PICKING UP SPEED RUNNING OUT OF TIME,

GOING HEAD TO HEAD IT'S THE WAY OF LIFE,

YOU GOTTA FALL DOWN AND EAT GROUND,

TO GET BACK UP AGAIN!

LET'S BEYBLADE!

SPINNING IT OUT AT THE SPEED OF SOUND,

GONNA RIP IT UP NOW THE BET IS DOWN,

WE'RE THE TEAM WITH THE BANG,

OUR GANG'S THE ONE THAT'S GONNA WIN!

LET'S BEYBLADE! BEYBLADE!

WOAHHHHHH!

LET'S BEYBLADE,

LET'S BEYBLADE,

BEYBLADE!

"LET IT RIP!" Samuel and Shadow had turned around to Maria, who had shouted.

"Sorry…I couldn't help myself…" she said, sweatdropping.

"OK, PEOPLE! LET'S SING THIS ROOF OFF!" Hikari yelled inside the room.

Shadow quickly broke down the door, and stuck his head inside.

"We're here! Just don't sing again!" he called. Team Tesco came out of the room.

"Whew…I thought we were going to die of boredom in there. That's why we were singing." Hikari explained. She blanched as Samuel walked up to her.

"When we get home, you have a LOT of explaining to do." he growled.

"Wait…we're missing someone!" Ace shouted.

"Who?"

"Blade! He hasn't come back!"

They heard footsteps and turned. Shaun was there, holding a gun.

"It looks like you've walked right into my hands." he said, staring at Shadow.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked. Shaun smirked.

"I'm just a guy that wants something from you…but who are you loyal to?"

"What are you talking about?"

"It has to be one of these people, right?"

"Just tell us where Blade is."

"He's somewhere safe. You don't need to worry about him."

There was a loud clang from behind Shaun. He slowly fell over, revealing Blade and Spark behind him.

"Looks like we got here in time. Let's get out of here." Blade muttered. They walked past the pile of guards, and headed out.

_Ooh, I think something got caught in the trap! *goes to trap to see it demolished* WTH?  
><em>Samuel: YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT! *extremely furious*

_Meep. *quickly slams door and starts piling stuff against it*_

Moral of story: Don't set traps for Samuel, he'll only grab the coffee and get annoyed at you.

_I don't know how he did it._


	16. Tricks of the bakeneko

_Yup, nothing much to say, just enjoy the chapters!_

Chapter 15: Tricks of the bakeneko

*theme song plays*

So, after a very random rescue, everyone headed back to Tails' workshop. Samuel immediately made some coffee (and used like EIGHT sachets) and Shadow listened to Blade's story while everyone else got on with their business.

"So, I have to keep an eye out for this Shaun person…but I wonder, how did he get my DNA in the first place?" Shadow wondered.

"I'm not sure…but now Spark's got your personality." Blade muttered. They turned to watch Spark, who was practising outside in the garden with his electric powers, and frying some innocent flowers at the same time.

"He seems to be fine…" Shadow said.

"I'm just worried that Shaun's going to come back, and somehow use more of your DNA to change Spark…"

"I won't let him." Shadow growled. Then he remembered his strange dream.

"Blade, do you know of a place called the Crystal Cave?" he asked. Blade looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"How do you know about it?"

"That doesn't matter. I just need you to take me there."

"OK, then…but why? The Crystal Cave is a huge maze, you know. You could get lost in there for years without a guide."

"Do you know how to get though it then?"

"Yeah, sure…Spark and I used to hide out there. I know the place." Blade gave a confident nod.

"So you could lead me there tomorrow?"

"Yeah. But everyone's going to wonder why you're going there."

"That's none of your concern. Where's Maria?"

Blade shrugged.

"Oh, she said something about looking around in the library in town."

"I guess that's where I'm going then." Shadow took out his Chaos emerald, and teleported.

He appeared in the library, and looked around. He couldn't see Maria anywhere. He walked out of the library.

"She must be in the shopping centre or somewhere." he thought.

Meanwhile, in the bookstore, Maria was looking at the books. A familiar looking black and white feral cat walked up.

"Mew." he mewed, flicking his tail.

"Awww, a cat…you shouldn't be in here, you know." Maria said, petting the cat. He looked up with a puzzled expression.

"_Is it usually a custom among you humans, to go around stroking random strays that you find?" _the cat mewed. Maria stared.

"Wait…did you just talk?"

"_It looks like you can understand me…Tsuki was right. You are a bakeneko like me." _The cat nodded.

"I was a bakeneko. Not anymore, though."

"_No, you're still a bakeneko. Or you would have gone back to the spirit world. Hang on, this conversation is becoming awkward." _the cat ran away.

"I wonder what's he doing…" Maria followed after the cat, and was surprised to see a black and white cat furry walk out in front of her.

"This isn't my true form, but it'll save you from having to endure strange looks from people, because you're talking with a cat." he explained.

"Who are you?"

"Me? I'm just a random traveller. Here, take this." the cat gave Maria a shiny glowing white crystal. As she touched it, Maria saw a vision.

*The vision*

A small black and white feral kitten was running through a village on fire, looking terrified. A large shadowy shape was chasing after him.

"Give me the crystal! I have to get more power!" the shape shouted.

"Never! The shard is not for demons like you!" the cat shouted back. As he raced on, the shape behind him howled, and three foxes, a white one, a black one and a grey fox, appeared in front of the cat.

"Give us the crystal." the black one hissed, approaching the kitten.

"Keep away!" the kitten backed away. He looked up to see a massive four tailed feral fox towering over him.

"If you give the shard up, we won't hurt you." Reimaru grinned. The kitten growled.

"I'm not stupid! You demon foxes never keep your word!" he shouted.

"Fine. I guess cat's on the menu tonight." Reimaru laughed.

"TSUKI! HELP!" the kitten yelled.

"She can't help you now. Let's get him." Reimaru and the other foxes ganged up on the kitten, who spat out what he was holding in his mouth, which was a white crystal.

"If you want the crystal, you'll have to put the pieces together!" the cat broke the crystal into small pieces with his paw.

"NO! You'll pay for that, feline!" Reimaru roared. The kitten flattened his ears as the fox lunged at him with his jaws open, showing long fangs.

*end of vision*

Maria gasped, and took a step back as the cat's eyes widened.

"You…you were attacked by Reimaru! I saw your death!" she shouted.

"Yeah, and I saw you being shot…I'll never get used to this vision stuff."

"Huh?"

"Since you're a bakeneko like me, you were able to see my death, and I was able to see yours. It looked like a painful way to go…" the cat muttered.

"Well, you got chomped by a demon fox. I think that's more painful." Maria shuddered.

"That crystal…I've seen a vision of the future, and you're going to need it."

"Is this the crystal Reimaru was trying to get?"

"No, the crystal he was after shattered. You see, I'm partly responsible for guarding those crystals, and making sure they don't fall into the wrong hands. They're very powerful, so use that shard wisely."

"I will."

The cat grinned, and walked out of the store.

"I never got your name!" Maria called after him.

"You'll find out! May we meet again, chosen one!"

The cat walked out. Maria went onto the street, and saw a black tail with a white tip disappearing around the corner.

"What a weird cat…" she thought. She continued down the road, and then saw a crowd of people gathering nearby.

"What are they looking at?" She went over, and saw that the crowd were watching a fight. Shadow was glaring at a smirking strange man.

"Get out of here! I want nothing to do with you!" he shouted.

"Ah, come on Shadow! Shaun just needs some of your DNA. It won't hurt, I promise!" the guy said.

"If it doesn't hurt, why don't you offer your DNA?"

"Because, we need only you. Well, I did give you the chance to come quietly. I'll see you around." the man walked off. Shadow stared after him, and Maria walked up.

"Shadow! Are you ok?" she asked. Shadow nodded.

"Come on. Let's get out of here. I have something that I want to tell you about." They walked back to Tails' workshop. However, when they got there a few hours later, something was happening out in the garden. Blade and Samuel were having an argument, while Spark watched, sighing to himself.

"No! Absolutely no!" Blade shouted.

"Rat, he can handle himself. I saw him using his powers." Samuel said.

"He's too young to become an agent! He's only eleven!"

"I think we should let him decide." Samuel turned to Spark, who was watching.

"Well, um…" Spark muttered, trying to think.

"Come on, kid. Become an agent. Put your powers to good use."

"I have to think about it!" Spark ran inside.

"Hey, Sammy!" Maria called to the Commander, who growled as he heard his nickname.

"DON'T CALL ME SAMMY!" he shouted back.

"Sorry…but shouldn't you be getting back to town?"

"I would be, but Hikari has hidden somewhere. I told her that I had to talk to her when we got back here, and she's vanished."

"Haven't you talked to Akemi?"

"He's gone too."

"OK, then…" Maria just walked back into the workshop.

"Well, that's new for you. Trying to recruit new agents that aren't even teenagers yet." Shadow said.

"Just keep your nose out of this, hedgehog. I haven't forgotten that I need to deal with you."

"Well, when the time comes…" Shadow flashed red for a few seconds.

"I still need to find that wolf…it's been gone for a while, but it might come back…" Samuel walked off.

Meanwhile, at Shaun's hideout, Shaun was watching something in a tube. The man from the street walked in.

"Did you see him?" Shaun asked, not bothering to turn around.

"Yes, but he's still refusing." the man sighed.

"Don't worry Matt…when this thing here awakens, Blade and Shadow are going to get the shock of their lives!"

"And when is that going to be?"

Shaun turned around.

"In a few days or weeks."

_Yeah…I haven't been updating often because of that 'Assertive Mentoring' thing at my school. There'll be no updates on the weekend._


	17. Showdown at the Crystal Cave!

_Dun dun dunnn! Showdown time!_

Chapter 16: Showdown at Crystal Cave!

*theme song plays*

In the morning, Shadow got up early, and grabbed his Chaos emerald. He didn't need to walk with anything to the Crystal Cave, which was good. He snuck downstairs, where Blade was waiting.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked. Shadow nodded.

"Great…let's make tracks." As they were about to leave, Shadow felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, and found himself staring into light blue eyes.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Maria frowned. Shadow's eyes twitched. Sometimes, he thought that if she put her mind to it, Maria would be an awesome ninja.

"Just how do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Appear out of nowhere!"

"I just walked down the stairs normally…"

"You CREPT down the stairs, you mean."

"Shadow! You're changing the subject!"

"Yeah, alright…I'm going to the Crystal Cave with Blade." Shadow explained.

"Why?"

"Well, you remember what I said yesterday?"

*Flashback to yesterday*

Maria and Shadow were walking down the road that led to the Mystic Ruins. Shadow turned to Maria.

"Say…what if I had to go away for a while?" he asked.

"Go away for what?"

"Like, if I was chosen by an ancient prophesy to defeat a demon…" Shadow muttered. Maria stared at him.

"Did you?" she asked. Shadow looked at the ground.

"Let's get back to that later…but what if I had to go and defeat this demon, and there was a small chance of me returning without serious injuries…or I didn't return at all…" he muttered.

"You wouldn't! If that happened…"

*End of flashback*

"You mean…you're actually leaving?"

Shadow turned away and nodded.

"You can't come. It's too dangerous…" he said, starting to walk off.

"But I'm worried about you!" Maria followed after him.

"NO! You have to stay here. If I lost you again…" Shadow just sighed and walked after Blade. Maria stared after him, and looked at the crystal.

"I wonder…" she thought.

In the forest, Blade led Shadow up to a cave entrance in a hill.

"Well, this is Crystal Cave…why do you want to come here anyway?" Blade asked.

"I'm not going to say until we get further into the cave. But at a certain point, you must listen to my orders. Whatever I say, you must do. You got that?" Shadow glared at Blade.

"Sure, I guess…as long as you don't tell me to jump off a cliff or something unreasonable." Blade nodded.

"Good. Let's go in." They walked into the cave, with Blade leading. As they got further in, the cave began to split into different paths. Shadow looked around. On the roof and sides of the cave, there were different coloured crystals, all glowing beautifully.

"Huh. I bet Tachi would like to come to this place." he said.

"Like? I wouldn't be able to get her to leave!" Blade cringed at the thought of trying to get Tachi out of the cave.

"Where do these paths go?"

"Well, most of them are dead ends, but there's one that leads to this really nice underground river and some kind of shrine…that's the way you want to go, right?"

"Yeah. Are we near it yet?"

"No…we're halfway."

They continued on down the path. Suddenly, Shadow felt something brush against his leg, and he jumped and looked down. He saw a small white cat with blue stripes.

"Sapphire-WAIT A SECOND!" Shadow stared hard at the cat.

"It looks like I can still use my bakeneko powers, and talk!" the cat said in Maria's voice.

"I told you to stay at the workshop! Go back now!" Shadow shouted.

"No! I'm coming with you." Maria said stubbornly.

"Is that a talking cat?" Blade stared.

"It's a long story."

Some howling echoed down the path.

"What is that noise?" Blade wondered.

"I don't know. Stay here with Maria and don't follow me!" Shadow ran down the path.

"At times like this, it's bad to be a cat…" Maria muttered.

"I hope he'll be fine…let's just follow, to make sure…" They walked after Shadow.

After much running, Shadow found himself in a wide area of the cave. There was a river nearby, and loads of crystals on the walls. But they were coloured purple. The dark hedgehog looked around cautiously, until he saw a whimpering heap against the wall. He skated over, and saw Reimaru in his human form, whimpering quietly.

"Reimaru! Snap out of it!" Shadow shook him. He looked up, his eyes clouding over.

"Little hedgehog? Is that you?" Reimaru asked, looking uncertain.

"Yeah…you've really got yourself into a bad situation, haven't you?"

"Don't worry about me! You have to look out for Mephiles!" the fox shouted. Shadow looked closely at him, and saw there was a wide slash on his side.

"If I don't get you out of here, you might bleed to death…"

"That's not important! He's here!" Reimaru yelled. Shadow turned as there was a whooshing noise, and then he was knocked away from Reimaru. He quickly stood back up, and saw Mephiles standing in front of him.

"Heh heh heh…it looks like you've finally decided to arrive. Now, I shall be rid of you!" Mephiles laughed, walking towards Shadow slowly.

"That's what you think." Shadow summoned a Chaos spear, and threw it. Mephiles took a step back.

"That won't work…you're going to have to try harder!" he shouted. Shadow growled as the other hedgehog rose his hand.

"I think it's my turn now…" Mephiles shot a purple laser at Shadow, who was sent flying. Shadow did a backflip, and managed to land on his feet, near the cave wall.

"You ought to be more careful…if you get hit into the wall, it'll be a slow death for you…" Mephiles said. Shadow took a glance back, and realised there were several sharp long crystals on the wall.

"_It looks like I'm in a tight spot…" _he thought, skating away from the wall. He curled up into a ball, and spindashed Mephiles away.

"You're going to have to do much better than that!"

A close combat fight started. Shadow kept on using his Chaos powers, while Mephiles shot giant lasers and tried to knock him into the wall. Finally, after ten minutes, they slowed down.

"You…you've gotten better.." Mephiles hissed.

"I can see why Reimaru was worried about you…" Shadow panted. As he took a step forward, Mephiles suddenly lunged forward and grabbed him by the throat.

"I'll put you out of your misery…" he snarled, walking to the wall. Shadow tried to kick him away, but failed.

"I think I'll enjoy this!" Mephiles laughed.

"_I should have never come…sorry Maria…"_ Shadow thought, his vision blurring.

"HEY YOU!" A voice shouted. Mephiles half turned around, but was owned by a laptop to the face.

"I'm not afraid to use this, you know!" Maria shouted, waving the laptop. Mephiles sweatdropped.

"You dare come here, and whack me in the face with a laptop?" he growled, dropping Shadow.

"Yeah, I do!" Maria shouted. She started whacking the poor hedgehog with the laptop.

"Stay away from Shadow!"

"Ow…right, that's it." Mephiles grabbed the laptop, but at the same time, Shadow jumped up, blazing red.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" he yelled, firing a large overpowered Chaos spear at Mephiles. It hit him, and he vanished, leaving a black pool on the ground.

"Finally…" Shadow muttered. Maria looked at him. His fur was ruffed up, he had small cuts on his face, and some dark blue stains on his fur.

"Are you ok?" she asked. Shadow nodded.

"I thought I would die when he grabbed me…" he said.

"Come on. Let's go...Blade's waiting outside."

Shadow turned to look at Reimaru, who was on the ground, still.

"Wait…Reimaru's been hurt, so we should take him as well." he muttered, walking over to him.

"I…don't need your pity…" Reimaru growled softly.

"I don't like you Reimaru, but…I'm going to put the past aside for a bit." Shadow helped Reimaru stand up, and then they walked out.

The black pool remained on the floor.

"I'll be back…" Mephiles' voice hissed.


	18. Team Shadow FTW!

_YES, I'M BACK IN ACTION! Thanks to the reviewers!_

_Heads up-I'm going on a work experience interview tomorrow maybe. So I might update late. Also, I'll be going on work experience for TWO weeks. AT THE LOCAL LIBRARY. *epic music plays as a camera zooms in on the library* It is…EXTREME LIBRARIAN ASSISTANT._

Tachi: It's just a library…

_You don't understand…and, a special thanks to one of my friends (you know who you are) at school for explaining why I shouldn't sell in school. I probably wouldn't be updating EVER if it wasn't for you. Really, thanks._

Chapter 17: Team Shadow FTW!

*theme song plays*

It was early afternoon, down at Tails' workshop. Shadow was just leaning against the wall, minding his own business, when something barked nearby. He looked down to see a black feral fox with a white tipped tail.

"What do you want?" Shadow asked.

"I am Rokubi, sixth tail of Reimaru, and leader of the pack. Reimaru wishes to speak to you. Follow me." the black fox turned, and padded away. Shadow followed after him.

"I forgot that Reimaru could split his tails up into different souls…" Shadow thought. Rokubi led him into a room, where Reimaru was in a bed. There were five other foxes gathered around in a small circle, whispering amongst themselves. They stared at Shadow as he walked in.

"Delightful…I have a pack of foxes staring at me." Shadow muttered under his breath. He walked over to Reimaru, who was grinning.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say, thanks for getting me out that blasted cave. If you had not arrived, I would be back in the Dark Forest now…" Reimaru shuddered as he thought about the Dark Forest.

"How are you feeling?" Shadow asked. Reimaru shrugged.

"Fine. Considering I have a slash from a demon hedgehog in my side."

"You better tell me everything. I want to know, why aren't you dead when I killed you a few months back?"

"Mephiles summoned me from the Dark Forest. He wanted me to help him get revenge on you, so I gladly agreed…then he told me that he wanted to change time and space, making events disappear. I didn't want anything to do with him, so he fought me, won and took my powers away. He wanted to find the location of a secret treasure." Reimaru explained.

"What is it?"

"It is the Moonlight Crystal…it can grant you mysterious powers, and legend speaks of a great force inside the crystal. If it ever broke, it would unleash fire, destruction and death."

"Let me guess, Mephiles wants to break it?" Shadow sighed.

"Which is why you must stop him."

"I already did."

"No, you haven't. To truly defeat him, you need to seal him into the Sceptre of Darkness. Or he'll just heal and come back."

"Where can I find this Sceptre of Darkness?"

"I don't know...the last time I heard about it was 300 years ago. It was in Soleanna at the time." Reimaru explained.

"130 years? Just how old are you?" Shadow looked puzzled.

"Hmm…well, I'm definitely older than you…I think I'm 490 years old, but in demon fox years, I'm 17." Reimaru shrugged. Shadow just stared.

"What are you looking at? Aren't you 56 or something like that?" Reimaru snapped.

"Yeah, I am…so demon foxes are immortal?"

"Yes, just as long as we don't get crushed, burnt, hurt with a demon slayer's sword, hit with a lot of Chaos energy, or hurt by other mythical beasts." Reimaru replied.

Just then, Maria came in.

"Aww, foxes!" she shouted, picking up a white fox.

"That's Nibi. She can't talk, but she's vicious." Reimaru warned. Maria looked at Nibi, who flashed some long pointy fangs. She slowly put the fox down.

"So Shadow, do you want to explain why a random hedgehog tried to kill you?" Maria asked. Shadow looked away.

"It's a long story."

-One long explanation later-

"You should have told me straight away…" Maria sighed.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't want to see anyone get hurt because of me."

"Well, I do have an idea we could try…"

"Yes?" Shadow asked.

"I saw this strange cat in town…he's a bakeneko like me, so he might know something." Maria explained.

"Great…let's go down to Westopolis then."

They walked out, bumping into a blue hedgehog outside.

"Hey Shads! Long time no see!" Sonic greeted him, waving the familiar thumbs up sign.

"Not you…we're busy, hedgehog." Shadow walked past Sonic.

"Too busy for a small race?" Sonic wondered. Shadow just ignored him, so the blue blur decided to talk to Maria.

"How do you put up with Mr. Angsty and Moody all the time?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, he lightens up. Sometimes." Maria smiled. A fiendish idea came to Sonic's head.

"You're really cute, you know." he said suddenly. Maria blushed, and then realised Shadow had stopped, and was standing like a statue, with his fur and quills bristling.

"That's nice Sonic…now, if you excuse me…"

"You have beautiful eyes!" Sonic complimented again. Maria watched as Shadow turned around slowly in the background behind Sonic, eyes narrowed and fangs bared.

"Well, you've got beautiful eyes as well. Now, really-" she was interrupted again.

"Hey, do you want to come out on a run sometime?" Sonic asked, unaware of the death glares being sent at his back. Maria cringed, as Shadow finally lost it, and started blazing red.

'SLAP! PUNCH! KICK! THUMP!'

Sonic nursed his bleeding nose. Shadow glared at him.

"Keep away from Maria, or I will Chaos spear you, drown you, and finally stuff you and give you to Reimaru as a early birthday present." he threatened.

"Shadow, please don't-" Maria was interrupted again.

"You see? Shads doesn't deserve you. Me on the other hand-" Sonic blinked as he was yanked by what little chest fur he had. Shadow smirked, and kicked him in a very sensitive spot.

"OWWWWW! SWEET CHAOS!" Sonic wailed, as Shadow dropped him. The blue blur rolled around on the floor in agony, tears in his eyes.

"Ouch…" Maria felt sorry for Sonic.

Samuel came over, cup of coffee in one hand.

"I think I'll point and laugh. Hah!" he shouted, pointing at Sonic.

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Sonic screamed.

"Come on, let's get away from this dump." Shadow said, stepping around the thrashing hedgehog.

"Aren't you going to say sorry?" Maria frowned.

"Oh, fine. Sorry, faker." Shadow muttered.

"I'll get you for this, Shads!" Sonic squeaked.

A few hours later, in town, Shadow and Maria were in the bookstore.

"This is where I saw him last time." Maria explained, as Shadow looked behind a bookshelf.

"Maybe he left." Shadow moved the bookshelf back. There was a meow from behind them, and they turned around to see the black cat from before.

"So, you guys want to know where the Sceptre of Darkness is?" the cat asked, leaning against the shelf.

"How did you know that?" Shadow looked at the cat, trying to work out his motives.

"Bakeneko powers. Over time, we get the ability to see important events in the future." the cat said.

"So where is the Sceptre of Darkness?"

"It's in Soleanna. You guys are going to have to travel there. Once you arrive there in a few weeks, you will meet some unexpected guides at the local library, and they will show you some ancient ruins. Then, you must find Moonlit Valley, and I will meet you there." the cat answered, walking away.

"I think that means an epic road trip, Shadow." Maria said, staring after the cat.

"Then let's get back to the workshop, and get ready to go."

Back at the workshop, Shadow packed a bag of supplies. He felt eyes watching him, and turned to see Tachi gazing at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

"None of your business."

"You're going on a trip, aren't you?"

"Yes, a trip. And only Maria's coming, so don't-" Shadow was cut off as Tachi shouted,

"GUYS! GET YOUR BACKSIDES IN HERE! WE'RE GOING ON A TRIP!"

Shadow facepalmed as pretty much everyone came stampeding into the room.

"ZOMG, TRIP!" Hikari cried.

"Hooray…" Akemi silently cheered.

"THERE'S TOO MANY PEOPLE!" Shadow shouted out.

"Well, Shadow, since everyone knows about the trip thanks to Tachi, we might as well invite them all. It's going to be more fun!" Maria said in excitement.

"Wait, you want him, and HIM to come on the trip?" Shadow pointed at Samuel and Paul.

"I could do with a holiday…" Paul muttered.

"And I have to keep an eye on you." Samuel glared at Shadow.

"Why not? We can set old grudges aside, and team up!" Maria shouted.

"Dear Chaos no…" Shadow whispered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I mean, yeah, they can all come!"

So, everyone went down to town, and started preparing for the quest to Soleanna. The shops that sold hiking equipment were well pleased when they saw the huge crowd descending into their shops. A few hours later, they all met back up in the forest.

"I think we should split into independent teams, because there'll be too many people running around." Shadow said to Maria, who was looking at a map.

"Yes, that might work…" she said.

"Where's the bathroom?" Tachi enquired. Shadow sweatdropped and turned around.

"Tachi, you see all those trees and bushes?"

"Yeah…"

"Good. Because that's where you're going to be going."

"Eww…."

"Oh, give me a break! Weren't you a wild jackal before?"

So, after much arguing, shoving, and temper tantrums, everyone got put on a team. The teams were-

Team Tesco- Tachi, Blade and Spark ("No, it can't be called Team Rat Attack." Tachi snapped)

Team Heroes-Sonic, Tails and Amy (Sonic yelled as Amy tried to hug him)

Team Aura- Brook, Ace and Strike ("At least I'm not on Team Tesco." Ace thought)

Team Light- Akemi, Hikari and Paul ("WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?" Paul cried as he dragged Samuel's heavy coffee maker behind him)

Team Shadow- Reimaru, Shadow, Maria and Samuel ("Why is this team named after you?" Reimaru questioned Shadow. "It was either Team Shadow, Team Jacob or Team Coffee FTW." Shadow shrugged.)

Everyone settled down as night fell over the forest, and set up their tents. Shadow looked on from a tree branch, and sighed as he saw Reimaru arguing with Samuel.

"I don't think this is going to end well…" he thought. There was some angry shouting below him.

"Shadow! Get off your backside and help us set up the tent!" Samuel yelled up. The dark hedgehog jumped down. Meanwhile, further away from the campsite, Blade was getting a drink from the river. As he stood back up, there was a whooshing noise, and he felt someone grab him from behind. A dagger was pressed to his throat.

"Who are you…let go of me!" Blade shouted.

"Why should I? You remember me, don't you Blade?" a female voice spoke softly into his ear. Blade froze, his eyes widening in shock.

"It can't be…you're meant to be dead…" he whispered.

"Well, I'm back for more now…" the voice hissed. Blade turned his head slightly to look at the person who was talking, and saw dark orange eyes.

_News-I'm accepting OCs for the third, and final part of this series. So NOW would be the time to send in your requests._


	19. Ninja ferret, ferret ninja!

_DOUBLE UPDATE TODAY! *checks time* tonight….I may not have the chance to post tomorrow, I'll have to see. Thanks to Captain Hande and Darkrose for reviewing!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any Sonic characters, just my OCs. I forgot to say this in the other chapters…Ace doesn't belong to me, she's Darkrose's OC._

Chapter 18: Ninja ferret, ferret ninja!

*theme song plays*

Blade stood as still as he could, as the knife brushed against his throat.

"Diamond…I thought you were dead.." he muttered.

"Well, I'm not. I've waited for this day for a very long time…" Diamond hissed.

"Diamond, what's the matter with you? We used to be friends, can't you just forgive me?" Blade begged, as he felt the knife come closer.

"I will have my revenge. You set Spark on me, and killed me…"

"Only because you were trying to kill him!"

"That doesn't matter Bladetail…"

"How did you come back?" Blade asked, trying to stall Diamond.

"I don't have to tell you…" Diamond suddenly slashed her knife across Blade's face.

"Ah! What the heck is your problem?" Blade winced, trying to nurse his cut.

"My problem is you. When we next meet, you better be ready, because it'll be a fight to the death, and the winner will be me! Be glad I spared your life!" Diamond hit Blade over the head, knocking him out. She then ran off into the forest.

In the morning, Tachi yawned and unrolled herself from the bush she had been sleeping in. She looked over at Spark, who was still asleep.

"Wow, it's hot today…" Tachi thought, stretching, and looked around for Blade.

"That's funny…he must of gone to get a drink or something." Tachi ran down to the river bank, and saw Blade passed out on the ground, groaning. She hurried over.

"Blade! Snap out of it!" she yelled. Blade got up slowly.

"Oh, hi Tachi…" he said. Tachi noticed his face had a long cut, that was bleeding slightly.

"Who did this to you?" she asked. Blade looked away.

"No one." he replied, keeping his face straight. Tachi nodded. She could sense Blade wasn't telling her anything, so she decided to drop the subject.

"Fine, let's go and catch up with the others."

"WAIT!" Samuel shouted. He came running up with Paul, holding his beloved coffee maker.

"I need to borrow Spark." he explained.

"Well, you can't." Blade snapped.

"Don't worry about him, what do you want?" Spark asked.

"Well, I need coffee. I'm sure everyone knows what happens when I don't have a cup every so often?"

"Yeah, you get annoyed."

"Annoyed is an understatement…" Tachi muttered to herself.

"So, I need you to use your electric powers to make it work." Samuel finished.

"What's in it for me?"

"You get chocolate muffins." Samuel held up a box of muffins.

"Deal!"

A few minutes later, Tachi and Blade sweatdropped as they stood in front of Paul and Spark. Paul was rubbing the plug of the coffee maker on Spark's fur, making it stand up and crackle with electricity. Samuel was making a rather huge cup of coffee.

"I don't like this. They're using him." Blade whispered to Tachi.

"Well, at least they're paying him." Tachi shrugged.

"Thanks, Spark. I appreciate this, and here's your reward!" Samuel gave the box of muffins to the rat.

"Ooh, chocolate chip flavoured!" Spark exclaimed, nibbling on a muffin. Blade just facepalmed.

"I think this cup will be enough for the whole day." Samuel walked off, sipping his coffee, while Paul groaned, and dragged the heavy coffee maker behind him.

Meanwhile, with Team Aura, they had stopped to take a break. Strike wasn't happy though.

"Honk!" he honked urgently, waving with his tail at the forest path. Brook was teaching Ace how to sense aura.

"So, you have to clear your mind, and concentrate, until you can see a faint blur around the person." Brook explained.

"I'm not seeing anything." Ace sighed.

"Keep trying. It'll be harder for you. I was born blind, so I developed the power to see and sense aura in place of my sight."

"Ok…." Ace gazed at Strike, concentrating hard. She saw a brief flicker of a blur around the velociraptor.

"I think I saw it!" she said in excitement.

"Good, keep practising! You'll get there." Brook nodded encouragingly.

"HISSSS!" Strike jumped up and down, pointing his claws ahead at the path.

"Chill out, Strike. We'll continue soon. Besides, I think everyone are behind us-"

"SONIKKU!" Amy's voice rang out. Strike jumped back, and Ace stared as a blue blur came speeding by with a fox kit chasing after it, followed by a screaming pink furball.

"We're not ahead any more, are we?" Brook sighed.

The members of Team Shadow were walking through another part of the forest. Samuel was still happily sipping his coffee, while Shadow was twitching his ears and looking around.

"What's wrong?" Maria asked.

"Nothing…you three go ahead without me. I have to check something." Shadow muttered. The others walked off. Shadow moved his ears around, trying to hear something. Then he ducked out of the way as there was a whistling noise. A throwing knife flew past him, landing in the bark of a tree.

"I knew it…come out, stop hiding!" Shadow shouted. There was a rustle in a tree behind him, and he turned to see a ferret furry with white fur, red stripes across her left eye that resembled claw marks, and a long red tipped tail. She had dark orange eyes, and was wearing a black leather jacket, with a denim skirt and red trainers. She was also wearing a brown belt, which had knives on it.

"Curses! You've got sharp ears." the ferret spoke, impressed.

"Who are you? And why did you just try to stab me just now?" Shadow snarled, getting into a fighting stance.

"I'm Diamond the ferret. It's an honour to meet you, Shadow…you're just like how I expected you to be." the ferret grinned, showing sharp fangs.

"Answer my question!"

"Very well. Matt sent me to capture you and Spark. He said I could use my knives on you. So, are you going to come quietly or do I have to drag you back, with a knife sticking out of you?" Diamond asked.

"If you know about me, you know my answer."

"OK. This should be a fair fight. Ready or not, here I come!" the ferret started throwing knives at Shadow, who practically did the Matrix to dodge them.

"_This ferret is good at throwing knives…I need to back up, and get out of her range."_ he thought. The hedgehog rolled into some bushes, and jumped up quickly.

"You can't escape me!" Diamond hissed, approaching the bush. Shadow grabbed her as she raised her knife to throw, and she struggled around, before punching Shadow in the stomach. Shadow yelped in pain, and quickly let go of her.

"What's the matter? Are you out of breath already?" Diamond smirked. As she picked up her knives, a voice was heard.

"Shadow! Hurry up!" Maria called. Diamond frowned.

"We'll finish this fight another time. See you around, Shady." the ferret leapt into a tree and hurried away, jumping branches. Maria walked up.

"What's going on? I heard talking…" she said. Shadow straightened up, taking his hands off his stomach.

"Nothing, if ferrets with knives are a common sight around here." he grumbled.

"Ferrets?"

-One explanation later-

"A ninja ferret! Or would that be ferret ninja?" Maria wondered.

"It doesn't matter. We have to find Team Tesco and warn them."

In the bushes, Diamond watched.

"So she's his friend…Shaun and Matt will be pleased to hear about this." she thought.


	20. Fire and Water

_SECOND UPDATE!_

Chapter 19: Fire and water

*theme song plays*

It was now in the early evening, as the teams stopped outside some ancient ruins. Reimaru was standing at the entrance, sighing to himself, while Shadow and Maria were just chilling out by a random tree.

"This brings back memories…" Reimaru muttered. Shadow came over.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at the fox, wondering.

"These ruins used to be one of my homes, you know…" Reimaru said, sounding sad.

"So what?"

"I haven't visited here in a while…I wonder if explorers have broken in already? I hope not…" Reimaru spaced out for a bit.

"You know, you've never talked about your past…" Shadow noted.

"Neither have you."

"You don't want to know about it…"

Just then, Samuel walked by.

"I think I might check these ruins out tomorrow…there might be a Chaos emerald!" he said. Reimaru glared at him.

"KEEP OUT OF MY HOUSE!" he shouted in Samuel's face.

"Do I have to show you a search warrant, then?" Samuel asked sarcastically.

"You're not going in! Besides…there's a lot of traps, curses and deadly snakes in there. I should know, I built it." Reimaru said proudly, wagging his tail.

"Sounds delightful…" Samuel walked off, already plotting a way to get into the ruins.

"It's people like him that steal treasure from sacred ruins…" Reimaru sighed.

"Oh, don't worry. Maybe he'll sneak in, and get bitten by a snake or break his neck if we're lucky." Shadow smirked.

"SHADOW! I CAN HEAR YOU!" Samuel yelled from a distance. Shadow stopped smirking as Samuel took out his gun, and pointed it at him. Maria suddenly walked up behind him.

"Sammy, you wouldn't be pointing a gun at Shadow now, would you?" she asked, frowning. Samuel quickly put his gun away, and started whistling innocently.

Blade was standing nearby, when there was a small thud behind him. He whipped around, and saw a quivering knife embedded in a tree trunk. He slowly walked over, taking the note that was attached to it.

'Bladetail, I challenge you to a fight to the death this midday. I'll find you, and don't even THINK of involving your friends. May the best furry win!

Diamond'

"Great…" Blade thought, ripping the note up. He really didn't want to fight Diamond, but on the other hand, she would try and kill him if he didn't fight back. He walked back to his tent, passing a curious Tachi.

"Why the long face?" she asked, tilting her head.

"It's none of your business Tachi. Is Spark awake?"

"He went to bed ages ago."

Blade sighed, and walked off. Tachi looked after him, her ears flattening down with frustration.

"He's not telling me anything…I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands." she thought, going inside her tent.

Meanwhile, Samuel was still looking at the entrance to the ruins. He grinned to himself, and walked off.

The next morning, Shadow was sleeping high up in a tree when he heard Maria yelling.

"SHADOW! SAMMY'S MISSING!" the girl yelled up. The poor hedgehog fell out of the tree in shock.

"What a way to start the morning…and Samuel's missing, you say?" Shadow yawned, not worried at all.

"Yes! He isn't lurking around the camp like he usually does, and he's not in his tent!"

"Why should I care?"

"Someone could have kidnapped him!" Maria gasped.

"…For the record, I don't think Samuel would let himself be taken. If I know him, he'd probably beat the crap out of the kidnappers first."

"We have to search for him!" Maria dragged Shadow away. The dark hedgehog grumbled under his breath. Seriously, what was the world coming to?

They went over to Reimaru, who was sitting on a rock, looking smug.

"Reimaru! Do you know where Samuel is?" Maria asked the fox.

"Yes. He's gone inside the ruins. I warned him, but…I don't think he's going to be coming back out of there." Reimaru laughed.

"We're going after him! You're coming as well!"

"I don't feel like getting up to look for pesky humans today. Maybe later. But if you're going inside, little ones, here's a guide for you." Reimaru flicked his tail, and Rokubi appeared before them.

"What is your wish, Reimaru?" Rokubi asked, respectfully lowering his head.

"Lead Shadow and Maria though the ruins. Make sure they don't get killed." Reimaru said simply. Rokubi nodded, and padded away through the entrance. Shadow and Maria quickly followed after him, and found themselves in a vast hall, with fox and dog statues standing around, looking impressive.

"Keep close to me. There are traps around us." Rokubi muttered.

Back with Blade, he was near a rushing river, waiting for Diamond to appear. She did, jumping out of a tree and landing in front of him.

"You're here. I thought you would wuss out, you know." Diamond smiled sweetly, stroking a knife in her hand.

"Let's get this fight over with. I don't want to kill you but if that is the only way…" Blade whipped his tail around, catching Diamond by surprise. The ferret quickly jumped back, and threw knives at Blade, which were dodged. Blade stopped near a tree, panting, then cried out as a fireball nearly hit him.

"You really are serious about this fight to the death thing, aren't you?" the rat growled, jumping out the way as a fireball missed him.

"What gave you that clue, Sherlock?" Diamond grinned, throwing more knives. Blade deflected them with his tail, but failed to see the large fireball. Diamond laughed, confident that he wouldn't be able to get out of the way, but then she stared as the fireball was put out by a stream of water from the river.

"I forgot you had control over water…" Diamond hissed. Blade shot some water at her, and then collapsed, worn out.

"But you can't use your powers without fainting!" Blade's vision blurred as he saw Diamond come over with a knife in her hand. She was just about to strike, when a furry brown furball jumped on her head, snarling and scratching.

"Ah!" Diamond yelped. She quickly got the attacking thing off her head, and beat a hasty retreat, yelling, "I'LL BE BACK!". Blade groaned as he was picked up, then he blacked out.

"Oh…my joints…they hurt…" Blade thought. He opened his eyes and realised he was in his tent. The tired rat blinked as Tachi leant over him, a cup of something in her hands.

"Go back to sleep Blade, you're tired." Tachi said firmly.

"You saved me….thanks…" Blade said, fainting again. Tachi tipped the contents of the cup down Blade's throat.

Back with Shadow and Maria in the ruins, they had successfully reached the last chamber of the ruins, which was a room full of rare items and other things, like treasures.

"Let's go. Samuel isn't here." Shadow grumbled. Maria was about to speak when there was some whimpering from a corner. She carefully looked around, and saw a furry thing lying near the wall. She hurried over, and let out a squeal when she saw a grey and white husky, with scruffy fur. It was wearing a dark grey bandana, with a purple orb tied on the end.

"AWWWWW! I LOVE HUSKIES! THEY'RE SO CUTE!" she shouted.

"But what is a husky doing here?" Shadow wondered.

"I don't know…it looks like he's knocked out." Maria picked up the husky, and turned to Shadow.

"Let's go, we have to see what's wrong with him."

The husky growled, and opened one eye that was brown. He fell asleep again, as Shadow stared suspiciously.

A few hours later, when they had finally got out of the ruins, Maria was in her tent with Shadow, looking at the husky.

"I wonder who he belongs to? Or maybe he's a stray…" Maria said, thoughtfully.

"Maria, there's something not right with this husky…I can feel it." Shadow glared at the dog, who was still knocked out.

"Oh, don't be so paranoid Shadow! I think he's cute!"

"Does that mean you'll start putting big pink bows and fairy wings on him?" Shadow asked dryly.

"No…" Maria sweatdropped, remembering the incident Shadow was referring to.

"Good. Since it's getting late, I'm going to go out and get some sleep." Shadow turned to go.

"Wait, don't you get cold outside?" Maria asked.

"I don't mind."

"You can stay here, you know."

Shadow thought about it, then nodded. Maria tossed him a blanket, and he curled up in the corner with it.

Early next morning, he was woken up by snoring. He opened his eyes to see the husky lying next to him, with his muzzle buried in Shadow's fluffy chest fur. He snored loudly, wagging his tail.

"Oh, great…Maria, are you up?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah…just thinking about names for the husky. So far, I've come up with Sky, Shade, Techno or Oki. I can't decide though…" Maria said.

"Well…I think I like Shade or Techno."

"I'll name him TESCO!" Tachi yelled outside.

"NO! His name's Techno!" Shadow quickly replied.

"WHAT ABOUT MORRISON? OR ASDA? THERE'S EVEN KWIKFIT!" Tachi howled back.

"Techno! That's it! Now go away!"

"Awww…I wonder if Techno was abandoned?" Maria sighed, petting the husky.

"What is it with you and huskies?"

"They're just so cute, and their eyes are so mysterious!" Maria smiled. Techno yawned, and opened his eyes.

"See? His eyes are mysterious!"

Shadow looked at the dog, who was blinking sleepily. From what Shadow could see, the dog had brown eyes.

"I find nothing mysterious about them."

"Look more closely!"

Shadow looked back at Techno, who was still half asleep. Then the husky's head turned, and Shadow saw that he had one brown eye, and a blue eye. The husky's eyes widened as they saw Shadow, and both of them stared at each other for a minute. Then Techno started barking and backed away from Shadow, while the dark hedgehog jumped back.

"MARIA! TECHNO HAS ODD EYES!" Shadow yelled.

"So? Odd eyes in huskies are quite common." Maria said, not bothered.

"HE'S GREY AND HE HAS ODD EYES! WHO DOES THAT REMIND YOU OF?"

"Hmm….Sammy, I guess. Maybe Techno can help us find him."

"I SWEAR THAT DOG'S NOT NORMAL! IT'S SAMUEL REBORN!" Shadow shouted.

"Oh, be quiet Shadow!"

Techno started growling and looking fierce at Shadow, who wisely backed out of the tent and climbed a tree. Techno chased after him.

"Shoo! Get!" Shadow yelled down. Techno ignored him, and Maria came out of the tent.

"Awww, you two are getting on…" she sighed, walking past.

"NO WE AREN'T!"

Techno looked at his paws, and then his tail. He started barking more, and running in circles.

_Oh dear…who is that husky? Is it really Samuel? _

Techno: *barks angrily at me*

Send in your theories! I'm dying to hear them!


	21. Canine Warriors, AWAY!

_Yawn….I just want to go to bed now…but I said, hey, let me post a new chapter first._

_Disclaimer: FOR THE 18TH TIME, I DO NOT OWN ANY SONIC CHARACTERS. Just my OCs. Ace belongs to Darkrose. Ninetails, the Canine Warriors and Amaterasu (from Okami) belongs to Clover or Capcom. And I came up with the legend myself. ONWARDS!_

Chapter 20: Canine Warriors, AWAY!

*theme song plays*

Shadow was still in the tree, looking down nervously as Techno started running around, barking in puzzlement. Paul came over.

"Hey! Hedgehog! Have you seen Samuel? He's still not back!" Paul shouted up at Shadow, who shrugged.

"I don't know where he is, but I have a bad feeling about that dog…" He said, pointing at Techno. The husky looked up at Paul, and started jumping up and down, barking furiously.

"He's very hyperactive…maybe you should walk him?" Paul walked off, leaving Shadow with an angry dog.

"WOOF! GRRR! WOOF!" Techno barked at Shadow.

"Get lost! Or I'll Chaos spear you!" Shadow yelled down. Techno ran off, and Shadow let out a sigh of relief. Then unexpectedly, Techno came back, dragging a machine gun with him.

"WOOF!" Techno placed the gun so it was pointing up at Shadow, who sweatdropped.

"Mutt, that's Samuel's gun. If he finds you with it, he'll stuff you."

"WOOF!" Techno tried to pull the trigger with his paw, which set off alarm bells in Shadow's head.

"It can't be…" Shadow jumped down, and raced off to find Maria, with a mad looking Techno chasing after him. He found Maria talking to Brook and Ace.

"Maria! That dog isn't normal! He knows how guns work, and he just tried to shoot me!" Shadow shouted. Techno growled, and jumped at him, but Shadow stepped out of the way.

"Oh, he just wants to play, I think. Look, here's a stick, go play fetch with him." Maria gave Shadow a stick.

"Fine, watch this. FETCH!" Shadow threw the stick past Techno, who just stared at him with a 'dude, I'm not your servant you know' look.

"Maybe you need to train him?" 

"HE'S YOUR DOG!"

"Guys…I think Samuel's around. Is he? I can sense him." Brook said, twitching her ears.

"No, I don't see him." Maria said, looking around. Techno started bouncing up and down, barking madly.

"What is it?"

"I'm definitely sure I can sense Samuel." Brook insisted.

"Could you come over here for a second?" Shadow asked. Brook stood in front of Techno, who was growling.

"Yeah! Isn't Samuel right here?" Brook replied, waving at the dog.

"…Maria…I think I'll go and get that coffee." Shadow zoomed off, and came back with a cup of coffee. He placed it in front of Techno, who sniffed at it suspiciously.

"I haven't poisoned it or anything." Shadow said. Techno barked, and started drinking the coffee.

"See? I think that…" Shadow began.

"No! It can't be!" Maria interrupted.

"It is. Techno is Samuel!" Shadow shouted. 'Techno' looked up.

"WOOF!" He nodded.

"Sammy! What happened to you?" Maria asked, rushing over to Samuel.

"Woof, woof, woof!" Samuel barked.

"It looks like he can't talk…"

"Come on. We'll find Reimaru, and ask him what's going on." They walked off, and spotted Reimaru sitting on a rock, meditating. He looked up as they ran over.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

"Yes! Samuel's a husky!" Shadow pointed at Samuel, who growled at Reimaru.

"AHH! DOG! I HATE DOGS!" Reimaru turned into his demon fox form, snarling.

"But do you know how to change him back?" Maria asked. Reimaru took a closer look at Samuel, then sniggered.

"Serves you right for sneaking around in my ruins, trying to steal treasure!" He laughed. Samuel's eye twitched, and the purple orb on his bandanna started glowing. He howled, somehow making time slow down, and charged at Reimaru, who simply side stepped out of the way. He watched as the husky raced past him, and slowed down as the orb stopped glowing.

"OK…WHAT THE CHAOS JUST HAPPENED?" Shadow shouted.

"Samuel's been turned into a Canine Warrior. I did tell him not to touch any of my treasure." Reimaru sighed.

"Canine Warrior?" Maria repeated.

"Yes, it seems that he somehow found the orb of Duty in my ruins, and it chose him and turned him into a dog."

"Orb of Duty?"

"It's one of eight treasures that have mysterious powers to slow down time and make the person wearing it super fast and agile. However, it has the effect of turning the person into a Canine Warrior as soon as they touch it. The treasure only works if the person's a dog, you see." Reimaru explained.

"And a Canine Warrior is what?"

"It's a dog that can use the power of one of the orbs to defeat demons."

"This is making no sense at all." Maria sighed. Reimaru watched in amusement as Samuel glared at him.

"I'll start from the beginning, then." He said. He started telling his story.

Reimaru's account

'Way, way back in ancient times, demons used to freely roam these forests, killing whenever they wanted, and causing misfortune to happen. The queen of the demons was Ninetails, a demon fox with nine tails. She was so powerful, she could control the powers of the sacred brush gods. But she was defeated by a wolf goddess called Amaterasu, who then left this world to go to the spirit forest. But that wasn't the end, oh no. Ninetails came back a second time to wreak her revenge on the people, but her wrath was stopped finally by eight brave Canine Warriors, dogs who could defeat demons.

Their leader was Tei, a vicious fighting dog with many scars and a missing eye. Tei had the orb of Brotherhood. The second dog was Rei, who was my namesake. He had the orb of Honour, and was a pointing dog. Then there were Chi, Ko, Shin, Jin, Chu, who had the orbs of Knowledge, Wisdom, Faith, Justice and Loyalty. Finally, there was Gi, a husky with the orb of Duty. They all fought demons for many years, and passed their orbs on to their descendants.

Now, today, it is said that the descendants are still around, but the treasures were scattered across the forest and hidden from sight. The orbs are still around, and there are a few people who do occasionally pick them up, and get transformed into Canine Warriors.

*end of account*

Shadow stared at Samuel, who seemed to be baring his fangs at him. Samuel slowly got up, and howled again, his orb glowing. He charged at Shadow, karate kicked him (somehow) and sent him flying into a tree.

"Ow…I didn't even have warning…" Shadow gasped. Maria hurried over to him.

"Are you alright?" She asked. Shadow nodded, and Maria turned to Samuel.

"Why would you go and attack him like that? He didn't hurt you!" She shouted. Samuel just stared at her, a glint of mischief and power in his gaze.

"So, Samuel might be stuck like that for a while." Reimaru finished.

"Woof?" Samuel looked at Reimaru, with a shocked look on his face.

"Can we change him back? I don't really like the idea of him having special powers." Shadow said, warily keeping an eye on the husky.

"Well, if we find the orb of Brotherhood, I should be able to use it and turn him back. It's in the desert ruins. We'll get there in a few days."

"A few DAYS?" Shadow yelled. Samuel just looked at him, with an evil expression.

"He's going to use his powers on me, I know it!"

"Woof…" Samuel grinned.

"Both of you have to keep away from each other then. Samuel, you stay over there, and Shadow, I'll keep an eye on you." Maria said.

"That won't help…"

"Samuel, if I see you lay one paw on Shadow, I'll tell everyone at GUN you're a dog." Maria threatened. Samuel growled, and walked off, casting evil looks at Shadow.

"Shadow, if you keep away from him, he won't be tempted to try his powers out on you."

"I'll keep away from him."

That was easier said than done. In the evening, Shadow was sitting on a tree branch as usual, asleep. Something crept over to the tree, leapt up, and smacked him down. Shadow jumped up, and saw a smirking Samuel standing in front of him, wagging his tail.

"What's wrong with you? Can't you take a break?" Shadow snarled, getting ready to fight. Samuel bared his fangs. He howled, making the orb glow again, and charged at Shadow.

To cut a long owning fight short, Shadow was left on the ground, knocked out with a few cuts on him, as Samuel walked off, looking smug.

_Yup…a bad tempered annoying guy has been turned into…a cute husky!_


	22. Diamond's return!

_Swift here!_

Tachi: *coughs loudly*

_And Tachi the Jackal as well! Yup, I've got work experience next Monday (but I'm sure I've said that before) so, I'll be updating RANDOMLY. There is no set time!_

Tachi: But…what was the set time for updates?

_Oh Mi Holy Shining Amaterasu 0'clock. _

Tachi: I'm guessing that means past 12:00 in the night?

_Yes and deedy._

Chapter 21: Diamond's return!

*theme song plays*

In the morning, everyone were packing up their tents and preparing to leave, when Maria spoke.

"Does anyone know where Shadow is? I haven't seen him all morning…" she said with concern.

"Nah, I haven't seen him." Sonic shrugged.

"He'll turn up later." Ace said.

"I think I should look for him…"

Maria walked off with Reimaru, while Samuel watched from behind a tree. He followed after them.

Meanwhile, Shadow was just waking up. He looked around at the passing scenery.

"Wait…passing scenery?" he thought. He struggled around a bit, only to realise he was tied up, and there was a gag on his mouth.

"What the *BEEP*?" he thought, moving around. He looked behind him, and saw Diamond was dragging him. He growled, and Diamond turned her head to look.

"Oh, you're awake. It was easy to catch you, you know. I just waited for that dog to leave, and then I descended to pick up the pieces. You should be ashamed of yourself, calling yourself the Ultimate, then getting knocked out by some mangy stray." Diamond said. Shadow thrashed around, muttering curses.

"I'm just taking you to Shaun and Matt, in case you were wondering. I guess I'll get Spark another time."

Shadow glared at her, and started glowing red. At once, he found himself with a knife held up in his face.

"If you use your Chaos powers, I'll be forced to bring you back to Shaun and Matt with a few knives in that white fluffy chest fur of yours." Diamond warned. Shadow stopped glowing red, and Diamond put her knife away.

"Now that we understand each other, we'll be stopping for lunch later. Then we'll arrive at Shaun's base, and may Chaos help you after that." she grinned.

"Mph!" Was all Shadow could say.

"Your friends won't be coming for you. If they do…" Diamond stroked a knife on her belt, smirking.

"How humiliating…to be kidnapped by some random ferret…" Shadow thought to himself.

Back with the rest of Team Shadow, they were still searching for the dark hedgehog.

"He wouldn't have wandered out of this area, where the campsite is…" Reimaru muttered.

"I hope he's alright…" Maria replied back. Samuel tried not to look guilty. They soon came to the tree where Shadow was before.

"Reimaru! Take a look at this!" Maria said, pointing at something. Reimaru looked at the thing on the ground, and realised it was short shredded black fur.

"That's some of Shadow's fur, right?" he asked.

"Yes…but he isn't the type to go around shedding fur all over the place."

"Maybe he got into a fight, and his fur was ripped." Reimaru suggested.

"A fight with what?"

Samuel glared at the fox, who had turned to look at him.

"A fight with Samuel." The demon fox said.

"Woof!"

"I've been smelling Shadow's blood on you all morning." Reimaru glared at the husky.

"Woof?" Samuel looked at his fur, trying to find bloodstains.

"Here, let me help you." Reimaru lifted Samuel's paw, revealing some smudges of blood on his claws.

"…Woof…" Samuel tried to look innocent.

"I can't believe you! You went after Shadow, didn't you? Just to try out your powers!" Maria shouted.

"Woof…" Samuel did the puppy dog eyes look, except it wasn't very effective.

"Don't try that look! It may work for Shadow, but it doesn't work for you!"

"Grr…" Samuel growled, looking angry.

"You'd better put your GUN training to good use, and track down Shadow, because I WILL tell everyone at GUN you've turned into a cute fluffy husky!" Maria threatened. Samuel quickly stood up, and started searching for clues.

"Woof!" He said, pointing with his paw at some drag marks and footprints leading away from the tree.

"Good dog!" Maria petted Samuel on the head.

"Grrrr!" The husky glared at her.

"So, we should follow these tracks?" Reimaru asked. Maria nodded.

Meanwhile, Blade was still in the tent. Tachi sighed, and then jumped as he sat up.

"That is the last time I use those crazy water powers…" Blade groaned.

"You have powers? I've never seen you use them." Tachi said, puzzled.

"Why should I? I have a tail that can cut through metal. Besides, when I use my power, I usually end up passing out…I haven't mastered it as yet. Diamond knew what she was doing when she threw that fireball." Blade sighed.

"Who is Diamond, anyway?"

"She used to be my friend…" Blade recalled a memory.

Blade's flashback

Blade, Diamond and Spark were racing through the forest. They slowed down, panting.

"I think we've lost the guards." Blade said.

"Finally! We're free!" Spark jumped for joy.

"You're not feeling ill, are you?" Blade asked, looking worried.

"No…"

"Good. Let's get out of here then." The furries walked off, with Diamond shooting fearful glares at Spark's back. Spark sensed this, and turned around.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You! It's you! When we were back there, you ripped those two guards apart like it was nothing!" Diamond shouted, backing away from Spark.

"Sorry…I can't control myself when I'm like that…" Spark muttered, looking guilty.

"It's not your fault…it's Shaun's for injecting you with that freaky stuff." Blade comforted him.

"That still doesn't excuse my behaviour…"

"You're right, it doesn't. You MURDERED those guards!" Diamond yelled.

"They were pointing guns at us…I thought Blade was going to get shot…"

"ENOUGH! We're not going to fight! We'll find a way to turn you back to normal, Spark." Blade shouted over them.

"Fine…" Diamond hissed.

As Blade turned around, he heard a whistling noise, and quickly whipped his tail. A knife went flying into a tree behind him, while Diamond glared, holding another knife.

"Diamond, what's the matter with you?" he shouted.

"What's wrong? The fact you're not taking any notice of Spark's powers! Look at him! He's a bloodthirsty killer now!" Diamond pointed at Spark, who flattened his ears.

"Shut up, Diamond!" Blade yelled back. The ferret just growled.

"We have to get rid of him! He's too dangerous!" she shouted, taking a step back. Blade protectively stood in front of Spark.

"If you want him, you'll have to fight me first…if not, then get out of here." he snarled. Diamond started throwing knives, and they ducked down out of the way.

"Spark, leave!" Blade ordered. Spark shook his head.

"I'm not leaving you to get hurt by Diamond!"

Diamond rushed at them, and Blade swiped his tail around, slashing her on the arm. She growled, and threw a knife at Blade, hitting his leg. He fell over, pulling the knife out.

"Stay out of this Blade. This is between me and Spark." Diamond said, approaching Spark. The small rat whimpered, and his eyes began to flicker red. He turned into the wolf, and charged at Diamond. Blade passed out, just hearing howls and barking.

When he woke up, Spark was next to him, his fur bristling in fright.

"Spark…where's Diamond?" Blade groaned.

"She's….I…" Spark stuttered, pointing at Diamond, who was lying on the ground. Blade gasped as he saw the claw marks on the ferret. He went over for a closer look, and stepped back in shock as he saw that she wasn't breathing.

"I think…she's gone…" Spark muttered.

"…Come on. Let's go." They ran off.

*End of flashback*

"I feel sorry for Diamond now…" Tachi sighed.

"So did I, but then she came back yesterday, and tried to fight me…" Blade spaced out.

"Well, she did try to kill Spark…"

"I have no idea how she came back, but it has something to do with Shaun." Blade growled.

"Maybe…you could say sorry to her? I mean, if she believes you killed her…" Tachi said.

"She won't listen to me…" Blade sighed, lying back on his bed.

A long distance away, Diamond had finally reached Shaun's hideout, with a not very enthusiastic Shadow in tow.

"Well, it looks like we're here. I do feel sorry for you, but I have to pay Shaun and Matt back somehow." Diamond said. Shaun came out of a room.

"Oh, you're back so soon, Diamond?" he asked. Diamond smirked.

"Yes, and I have a little gift for you…" she said, pointing at Shadow.

"You actually managed to capture him!"

"Of course. And it was all thanks to a certain scruffy dog…"

"Ok, bring him in…" Shaun said. Diamond dragged Shadow into the room.

"_I have to get out of here! I don't like this situation at all…"_ Shadow thought. He looked up as Shaun came over with a big pointy needle in his hand.

"Don't worry, Shadow. This won't hurt much." Shaun said. Shadow flattened his ears down, and tried to get out of the ropes, but Shaun stuck the needle into his arm.

"Mph…" Shadow fainted.

"So, Shaun…if you don't mind me asking, what's going to happen to him now?" Diamond asked.

"Nothing that you need to know about."

Diamond shrugged, and walked out. She couldn't help thinking that she had made a mistake, but she ignored the feeling.

"It's not like he's my friend or anything…" she thought.

_Looks like Shadow's having a very unlucky day._

News-_Still accepting OCs for final part! _


	23. Believe it!

_I'm back! I had my interview, and I'll be going back on Monday!_

Lucy Labrador-_Hmm…I think I'll ask Diamond why she never runs out of knives! HEY, DIAMOND!_

*A annoyed ferret walks into the room*

_Do you ever run out of knives to throw?_

Diamond: Not really…let's see, I've got 10 on my belt, 30 in my pockets, and just in case…7 in my other pocket! And they're all aimed…AT YOU! *laughs*

_Oh crappy crap McMuffins! *dodges knives thrown at me, and hides behind sofa*_

Tachi: I hope you're happy, Swift! *ducks down as a knife nearly misses her*

Chapter 22: Believe it!

*theme song plays*

Maria, Reimaru and Samuel, who was still a husky, hadn't found Shadow as yet. It was now early morning, and they were continuing to follow the tracks.

"Shadow better have a good explanation for why we have to be searching for him." Reimaru complained.

"We'll find him soon. But I can't see why Sammy here can't sniff him out." Maria glared at Samuel, who growled back.

"I'm going to see what's up ahead." Reimaru turned into his demon fox form, and dashed off.

"HEY! Reimaru! Wait!" Maria called.

"What?"

"Don't you think you should stay in your human form? I mean, you might startle a group of innocent campers."

"This modern age really gets on my nerves…in my day, it used to be normal to see demons and other creatures in the forest." Reimaru sighed.

"What happened to the demons and other foxes?" Maria asked. Reimaru turned away.

"Gone. Extinct. I might even be the last of my species…" He replied, staring at the ground.

"Oh…I'm sorry…"

"Don't be…the Canine Warriors defeated most of the demons. After that, there were demon slayers. All of the demon foxes were killed most likely."

"Then how did you survive?"

"I was turned into a statue for many years, by a powerful sorceress, called…Tsuki. After the curse lifted, thanks to a thieving explorer, I came to the forest and realised how much things had changed…" Reimaru explained.

"Woof!" Samuel pointed with his nose at the forest path.

"Yes, you're right. We should continue."

Meanwhile, at Shaun's base, Shadow woke up. He was restrained to a table, and his arm felt sore.

"I wonder how long I've been here?" He thought. He looked at his arm to see some wires and tubes poking out of it.

"I really hate mad scientists…." He sighed, trying to see if he could get up. Shaun came in.

"Oh, you're up. That's good." Shaun said.

"What's with these wires?"

"Ah…I had to take some blood from you, so I could extract the DNA from it…" Shaun grinned.

"You're officially a psychopath, and if I could move, I would Chaos Blast your backside into next week." Shadow told him simply.

"Well, someone has to do something useful around here. I'm surprised that GUN haven't come after you for your immortality yet. I know I would…but I'll sort that out later."

"What's going to happen now?"

"I've got a nice comfy cell for you. We might need you again, so you're not leaving yet."

"That's what you think…" Shadow thought.

"Now, I'm going to disconnect these wires. You might feel slightly dizzy afterwards." Shaun came forward, and Shadow growled as he pulled the wires and tubes off. Shaun got a bandage, and wrapped it around Shadow's arm.

"Feel better?" He asked.

"Everything's gone blurry…" Shadow muttered.

"Maybe I took too much blood from you…Diamond!" He called. Diamond came in.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Take Shadow to his comfy cell. And make sure you give him something to eat."

Diamond nodded, and waited as Shaun took the restraints off Shadow.

"If you try escaping, you'll only pass out. Besides, we're a long way from civilisation here." Shaun warned Shadow.

"Whatever."

Diamond steered Shadow out of the room.

"I don't need your help! I can walk by myself!" Shadow snapped at the ferret. Diamond shrugged.

"Ok, then. Try not to fall." She said, leading Shadow down to a cell. She opened the door, and Shadow was surprised.

"I thought that guy was joking when he said comfy cell…" He muttered, looking around at the room. The 'cell' was fairly big, with a bed, desk and even a bookshelf.

"You are the Ultimate Lifeform. So Shaun thought you should get special treatment. You should be glad, as he doesn't normally do this a lot." Diamond explained. Shadow walked over to another door.

"And where does this lead to?" He asked.

"My room. But don't get any funny ideas…I can still take you down if you try bursting in without knocking…" Diamond hissed, stroking a knife. Shadow sweatdropped, as he looked at the ferret, who had a slightly mad expression on her face.

"You may be an enemy, but I don't act like that towards people." He said.

"If you say so…" Diamond walked out of the room, and came back a few moments later, with a plate of pizza.

"I must say, I haven't been treated this good by enemies…you even bought me my favourite food." Shadow examined the food to make sure it wasn't drugged, and then tucked in. When he had finished, he curled up on the bed and went to sleep. Diamond smiled and left the room. She stopped outside Shaun's room, about to knock, when she heard voices.

"Shaun, she's useful. I mean, she caught Shadow, for crying out loud!" Matt's voice sounded.

"Yes, but we don't need her help any more. We can find Spark ourselves." Shaun said inside.

"So, you want to get rid of her?"

"No…she can share the same fate as Shadow."

"And that is?"

"Suspended animation. She won't know what hit her."

"Oh…then you've got the equipment sorted?" Matt asked. Shaun nodded.

"We'll try it out later."

Diamond slowly backed away from the door, and went quietly to Shadow's room. The hedgehog woke up as she came in.

"Can't I get some sleep?" He asked, looking annoyed.

"We're on the same team now…I heard Shaun and Matt planning…" Diamond explained the plan, and Shadow jumped up.

"We have to get…" Shadow winced as a sharp pain came though his arm.

"If only you could recover quickly…I can't give you the emerald, Shaun's taken it."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"Would I lie about this?" Diamond glared at Shadow.

"Fine. But this is only once."

"Then, I'll go get ready to leave. We'll go soon." Diamond walked out of the room, not realising that a guard was nearby, listening in. The guard walked off silently.

Meanwhile, Team Shadow was outside the base.

"When I find Shadow, he's going to get it." Reimaru said, growling.

"Woof." Samuel agreed.

"But how are we going to break in…?" Maria wondered.

"Watch and wonder, little one." Reimaru dashed off in his true form, and broke down the wall, leaving a huge fox shaped hole.

"Reimaru…there was a door you know…" Maria pointed at an open door.

"It looks like a trap. Well, I think it's wrecking time!" Reimaru ran off to break more walls, and threaten people. The guards gasped as they saw the seven tailed fox chasing after them, cackling evilly.

"Come on, Sammy." Maria called to him, going the opposite way. Samuel growled, and followed after her.

"So, what's it like being a dog?" Maria asked.

"Woof…" Samuel glared at her with a dark look.

"It can't be that bad!"

"WOOF WOOF WOOF!" Samuel jumped up and down, looking mad.

"At least it keeps you quiet, and you're less intimidating!"

"Growl…"

Just then, they heard banging coming from a room. Maria slowly opened the door, and Diamond leapt out, fur bristling.

"When I see Shaun and Matt…" She threatened.

"You're that ninja ferret who attacked Shadow!"

"Ninja ferret? Isn't it Ferret ninja?" Diamond stared at Maria.

"No, it's Ninja ferret…because you're a ferret. If it was Ferret ninja, you would be a ninja with a pet ferret…I think." Maria explained.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"WOOF!" Samuel barked urgently.

"Oh, I see that you've brought your scruffy stray mutt friend." Diamond smirked. Samuel's eye twitched, and he howled, making the orb glow again. He dashed at Diamond, who was shocked, and head butted her back into the room.

"Ow…he's a clever dog…" Diamond groaned.

"Actually, he's not a dog, he's the-" Maria stopped as Samuel snarled at her.

"Never mind…"

"You're probably here looking for your friend?" Diamond asked, getting back up.

"Yeah! Do you know where Shadow is?"

"Well…"

Diamond's flashback

Diamond was walking back to her room, when she heard yelling and scuffling from Shadow's room. She slowly opened the door, and found Shadow being held by Shaun.

"Hello, Diamond…you traitor." Shaun glared at Diamond.

"Traitor? You're the one who double crossed me!" Diamond said, pulling out a knife.

"Don't move, or Shady here's going to get it." Shaun growled.

"DON'T CALL ME SHADY!" Shadow shouted, glowing red. Shaun hit him on the head, and the hedgehog fainted. Diamond dropped her knife.

"I…" She trailed off, blushing.

"Ah ha! You've got attached to him!" Shaun realised.

"NO! IT'S NOT THAT!" Diamond acted flustered.

"Typical. Well, I'll take Shady here, and come back for you later."

*End of flashback*

"Yeah…that's what happened…" Diamond muttered, looking sheepish.

"Woof…" Samuel sniggered.

"I mean, I just like him, I don't love him or anything…"

"We'll talk about this later. For now, we need to find Shadow."

They quickly headed to Shaun's room, Diamond leading the way. She opened the door, and saw Shaun trying to push Shadow into a glass pod. The hedgehog was putting up a good fight, though. Matt was just watching, facepalming.

"Get in! It won't hurt!" Shaun shouted, trying to shift Shadow into the pod.

"Then why don't you try being surrounded by just blackness for 50 years?" Shadow yelled, struggling for dear life.

"You won't be staying in there that long!"

"Yeah, that's what Samuel said last time, then I was asleep for 50 years!"

"Oh come on! Please, for the love of Chaos and all that's holy, just get in!" Shaun wailed in despair, getting kicked in the leg.

Diamond slowly turned to Maria, who was sweatdropping.

"Shouldn't we help?"

"Yes, we should!"

"Maria?" Shadow asked. Shaun quickly shoved him inside the pod and locked the door.

"So…it's you kids again…" He said, ignoring the yelling from Shadow.

"Let Shadow go! Or I'll…" Maria tried to think of something.

"You'll what?"

"Chaos spear! Chaos blast! CHAOS EVERYTHING!" Shadow shouted, trying to break out.

"Yes! I'll set an angry husky on you!" Maria yelled at Shaun. She turned to look at Samuel, who was yawning and looking bored. Just then, there was some roaring, and Reimaru broke down the wall.

"Sorry I'm late…the screaming guards were fun to chase around." Reimaru explained.

"It's…a seven tailed fox?" Matt asked, looking fearful.

"Believe it! And that's a Naruto reference." Reimaru winked at Matt.

"So what? I'm not scared of some mangy fox!" Shaun shouted.

"Oh no you didn't…" Reimaru glared at Shaun.

"Yes, I did."

"I'd apologise if I were you. He might eat you." Shadow said.

"Yeah, right-" Shaun yelled as he was picked up in Reimaru's jaws.

"Hmmm….I haven't eaten people for a while…" Reimaru playfully started tossing Shaun up and down.

"PUT ME DOWN!" Shaun screamed, flailing around. While Reimaru was throwing him around, Maria quickly let Shadow out.

"Thanks…let's get out of here, I hate this place." Shadow muttered, walking out. Reimaru dropped Shaun, and roared in his face. The poor man passed out, and Reimaru walked off, grinning.

"Still haven't lost it." The fox said proudly.

When the team finally got back to the camp, it was nightfall. Everyone were just chilling out by a campfire.

"So, you're finally back." Blade sighed.

"Yes! Diamond helped us, but…she's run off somewhere." Maria said looking around for the ferret.

"Good riddance."

Hikari walked over, and saw a scruffy husky sitting next to Maria, looking very bored. She immediately went into Fangirl mode.

"ZOMG, THIS HUSKY IS SOO CUTE!" She screamed, picking up the confused Sammy and hugging him.

"Do you think we should tell her that her dad's a dog?" Shadow whispered to Maria.

"We'll explain later."

Diamond: Darn, I've run out of knives!

_After nearly an hour? *looks around room to see knives decorating the walls and furniture* Sigh…looks like we'll have to clean up this mess._

Diamond: But…I still have my fire! That NEVER runs out! *starts throwing fireballs*

_AHHHHH! *flees*_

Tachi: Oh yes, and the loyal reviewers should check out Lucy Labrador's stories! I heard that there's a lot of good crossovers up!*runs after me*


	24. Not a Death Note reference!

_I apologise for my lazyness…_

Chapter 23: Not a Death Note reference!

*theme song plays*

So, after camping out in the forest, the teams headed to Snowpoint mountain. Why, you may ask?

*flashback*

"Are you sure we're supposed to climb the mountains, to reach Soleanna?" Blade asked Shadow, looking doubtful.

"Of course! It says so, on this map!" Shadow rubbed the map in Blade's face.

"OK, if you're sure…"

"So, we climb Snowpoint Mountain, go through the mountain pass, head through another forest, cross the desert, go through another forest, go past the volcano, and we're there." Shadow finished.

"Mountain climbing?" Ace pondered.

"Yes."

"Oh, great…"

"This will be AWESOME!" Sonic shouted. He sweatdropped as Amy came running up, attracted by his voice.

"SONIKKU!" She joyfully yelled. Sonic quickly ran off, being chased by a pink blur.

"…As I was saying, once we get to Soleanna, my team will go to the local library to find these guides." Shadow continued.

"We still need to turn Sammy back…" Maria pointed out.

"Reimaru said that there's ruins in the desert, so he'll find that Orb of Brotherhood, and turn Samuel back into his usual grumpy self."

"Grr…" Samuel growled at Shadow, warningly.

"A pity though…you're a lot nicer in that dog form, I think." Shadow smirked as Samuel growled loudly, glaring at him.

*end of flashback*

After a few more days of travelling, the group finally reached Snowpoint Mountain in the early afternoon.

Shadow gazed across the vast crystal clear lake, that seemed familiar to him.

"_But of course…this is the place where I died once…"_ Shadow shuddered, and looked away as memories of being trapped under ice came back to him.

"Water…" Sonic shivered.

"Woof…" Samuel looked nervous too.

"How do we get across?" Maria wondered. As Tachi looked at the lake, only one thing came to mind.

"EXTREME SWIMMING!" Tachi yelled, turning into a feral jackal and leaping into the lake. Shadow wasn't terribly amused, as the water splashed on him.

"How can she swim in there? It looks so…deep…" Sonic muttered.

"Yes, but how do we get across to the other side? Only a few people here can swim, and the rest absolutely hate water!" Maria said, waving at Akemi, who was looking at the water and shaking his head.

"I value my hairstyle too much." Akemi patted his hairstyle fondly.

"If you call that a hairstyle." Hikari muttered.

"Tachi, come out of there! That lake isn't safe!" Maria called to Tachi. The jackal paddled out, looking disappointed.

"Aww…." She sulked.

"We can get across this, but it involves going around the lake." Paul said.

"How long will that take?" 

"Only an hour or so."

So they managed to go around the lake, even though it took two hours. They soon arrived in the village, where they weren't many people.

"Wow…I haven't seen this place for a while!" Hikari shouted, running off to her house.

"I really should come here more often." Paul muttered.

Hikari got to her house, with Maria and Shadow, and knocked on the door. There was loud barking, and a familiar kid opened the door.

"Le gasp, Hikari?" Max shouted, as Kuro jumped on Shadow and tried biting him.

"Yup, it's me! I bet you're surprised!" Hikari said, giving Max a hug.

"Well, you went and ran off with Shadow, shouting something like, 'I have to find my brother!'"

"Yeah…good times…" Hikari recalled her quest, while Maria pulled Kuro off Shadow and tried to calm him down.

"Did Shadow ever get his past back?"

"Yeah, he did…and I found a lot of interesting things as well."

Max stared as a large crowd came up. Kuro was still attempting to take a bite out of Shadow, but Maria was holding the shiba inu back. Kuro whined and growled, still glaring at Shadow. Samuel walked up, and Kuro started growling and staring at him, but Samuel just ignored him.

"This is where we're staying tonight?" Sonic asked, trying to take a squealing Amy off him.

"If you'd rather freeze to death out here…" Akemi began.

"No, I'm cool with it!"

"I think some people might have to somewhere else, Jack will have a fit if he sees a large group of randoms." Max muttered.

"Who's Jack?" Hikari wondered.

"The strict but funny babysitter Paul ever so kindly sent here when he went running off after you and Shadow." Max replied, glaring at Paul.

"At least you didn't starve to death!" Paul shouted back. A random man came to the door.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"These people need a place to stay."

The man suddenly noticed Paul, who was slowly creeping off. He rushed up to him, and started shaking him by the shoulders.

"PAUL! WHERE'S MY MONEY, MAN? WHERE'S MY LEAFY GREENS?" The man shouted in Paul's face.

"I don't exactly have any change on me now Jack…but I'll trade this coffee with you." Paul held up a jar of coffee, and a snarling Samuel came past, snatching it out of his hand and storming off.

"OK then…I'll give you…" Paul searched his pocket frantically, before dropping a piece of string and a stick in Jack's hand. Jack stared at them, his eye twitching madly.

"IS THIS IT?"

"Yeah…the stick brings good luck!" Paul said, slowly backing away. Tachi stomped over, kicked him in the leg, snatched the stick out of Jack's hand and walked off.

"Oh, you are so dead." Jack muttered, rounding up on Paul. Max quickly ran up to interrupt the coming fight.

"Hey, the rest of the people who can't stay in the house are in that hotel over there." He pointed at a creepy broken down house, which had some storm clouds over it. Maria and Paul stared as some lightening flashed over it.

"I'm staying in the house!" Paul ran off with Jack.

"Sigh…I guess that means we're staying at the hotel, Sammy." Maria sighed. She looked around for the husky and saw him running after Paul. Shadow walked up, and stared at the creepy house.

"So, Ace, Reimaru, Akemi, Tachi and Blade are coming with us to the hotel…" he muttered.

"And the others are staying in the house?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the hotel doesn't look that bad…" Maria jumped as there was a rumble of thunder from the storm clouds.

"If you say so…"

The rest of the teams stayed in the house, while everyone else (and it wasn't that many people) went to the spooky hotel. Ace slowly opened the door.

"Well, this place isn't that bad." she said, shrugging. A large feral bat came flapping out of the building. It flew past, and perched in a tree.

"Isn't so bad?" Akemi asked, staring at the bat.

"We could always sleep outside."

"No thanks, I prefer not to freeze to death."

They walked into the hotel, and the door slammed shut behind them.

"That's incredibly cliché." Reimaru said, facepalming at the cheesiness. A loud cough interrupted him, and they turned to see a rather normal looking lady.

"I apologise for the slamming door…there's a draft." she said.

"Do you have any rooms?" Shadow asked. The lady nodded, and led them upstairs, to where there were several rooms.

"It seems creepy in here, but it's not really that bad." she said, walking off.

"Aren't you going to take our money?" Maria called after her.

"No! I don't need it…"

"I don't like that lady…I'm getting dark vibes from her…" Reimaru muttered.

"Let's just see the rooms."

Reimaru got his own room at the end of the corridor, Ace got her own room as well, and Tachi shared her room with Blade. As for Shadow and Maria, they stayed in the same room. Akemi went off to explore somewhere else, saying he'd be back.

"Isn't this place so creepy?" Tachi asked Blade, in her room.

"Not really…it seems fine to me." Blade shrugged.

"OK then…you have the bed." Tachi turned into a feral jackal, and curled up on the rug.

"Don't you want the bed?" Blade asked.

"Well, I guess we could share it." Tachi jumped into the bed, and snuggled up next to Blade. The poor rat blushed, thanking the gods Tachi couldn't see his awkwardness. Tachi could be so naïve sometimes.

"_What's wrong with me? Tachi's just a friend!"_ he thought angrily in his mind.

In Reimaru's room, the fox was pacing up and down. He really couldn't go to sleep, feeling that dark presence. He stuck his head out of the room, and saw Ace peering down the corridor. He walked over.

"I really don't like this place…everything's telling me to run away…" he mumbled.

"You don't think that lady's bad?"

"She could be…I'm going to go sniff around." Reimaru walked off.

"I'll come with you." Ace went after him.

In Shadow's dreams, the dark hedgehog was walking through a forest, looking around.

"Well…it seems that no one's going to try and kill me randomly…" he thought. He saw Maria wandering around, so he went over.

"Are you really here in my dream?" he asked.

"It looks like it…" Maria said.

"This forest…it's not the spirit world, is it?"

Unexpectedly, a familiar black cat appeared.

"It's you again!" Shadow shouted.

"Yes, me! You two are really off the beaten track, aren't you?" the cat asked.

"Yeah, so? It's only because you sent us on some long quest to find some sceptre."

"And time is running out…your lives are at stake here, by the way." the cat said, twitching his tail.

"Time is running out?"

"Yes, but you need to get out of this place now. There's a demon on the loose."

"Demon?"

"Yeah, so if I were you, I'd get out before you get eaten. Now, get going!"

The cat disappeared, as Shadow looked at Maria with a puzzled look.

"That cat…he speaks in riddles." Maria muttered.

"I think we should get out of here now then…"

They woke up in the real world, still in the creepy room.

"Let's go and find everyone, before we get eaten by this demon." Shadow said, about to walk out.

"Aren't you at least a bit freaked out about a demon hiding in this hotel? We don't know where it could be!"

"Yes, which is why we shouldn't hang around."

Meanwhile, Reimaru and Ace had found a dark hidden room. They were looking around, when they heard a yell.

"WHAT THE F-" Akemi's voice was cut off.

"Idiot…everyone knows in haunted houses, you don't walk off to look around!" Reimaru growled. They ran towards the noise, and found Akemi, who was lying on the floor. The lady was standing over him, looking concerned.

"My goodness…" she said, covering her mouth in shock.

"What happened? Is Akemi ok?" Ace hurried over to Akemi, who was knocked out.

"Some huge demon came out of nowhere and attacked him! We don't stand a chance, the demon's so powerful!" the woman wailed. Reimaru just stood where he was, quietly watching the woman.

"Ha ha…you don't fool me, fellow demon…" he suddenly hissed, turning into his demon fox form.

"What…what do you mean?"

"I can tell when there's demon snakes around!"

The lady's eyes flashed yellow, and Ace quickly jumped back, dragging Akemi.

"Hee hee…it's been a while, Reimaru." the lady spoke in a hissing voice.

"Demon snake?" Ace got ready to fight.

"Kira…you haven't changed your tricks at all. I thought you were dead." Reimaru snapped.

"Nonsense! I came to this area recently. There's been talks going around the dark forest, and everyone's saying there's a demon hedgehog trying to destroy the timeline. Now, I want to meet this guy…but first, I'll be snacking on souls first!" The lady jumped at Ace, who blasted her away with a wave of dark energy.

"Your friend?" Ace asked Reimaru.

"She's not my friend…" Reimaru growled, picking Akemi up and placing him on his back. They retreated out of the room, and found Shadow and Maria staring at them outside.

"You met the demon, didn't you?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, now we're getting out of here."

There was some loud hissing behind them. Reimaru shut the door carefully, and they ran off. Tachi peered out of her room as they raced past.

"I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" she barked.

"Tachi, shut it and get Blade. We're leaving."

The jackal nodded, and stepped back inside her room. She returned, dragging a half asleep Blade.

"…Can't I get a bit of shuteye?" Blade groaned. Reimaru leapt forward, and roared in his face.

"OK, I'm awake." Blade blinked.

"Good. If you don't start moving, I will toss you back to Kira as bait."

"I don't want to know who Kira is, so let's run for it!"

They ran outside the hotel, still being followed by the mad hissing. Reimaru started drawing a line in front of the hotel, and looked over at Maria.

"Can you still use your bakeneko powers?" he asked. Maria nodded.

"Why?"

"Set this line on the ground on fire. If I'm right, Kira won't be able to cross it. The rest of you, get to a safe place. I'm going to send that snake to the dark forest…"

Everyone else backed up to a safe distance, and Maria set the line Reimaru had drawn on fire. Some frenzied hissing started up, and Kira jumped out of the house.

"Bakeneko fire? How are those cats still alive?" she shouted, backing away from the fire. Reimaru grinned, and six foxes on fire appeared.

"Get her." he said. The foxes darted forward though the fire, and there was some noises of fighting. The foxes came back to Reimaru, who blew out the flames, revealing some ash.

"She won't be back for a while." Reimaru said, walking off.

"Was that really necessary? I mean, you could have come to some agreement…" Maria stopped as the fox glared at her.

"I don't know why you see an opportunity to resolve conflict in every argument, but Kira would have killed us if I hadn't got rid of her. It's a dog eat dog world out there." Reimaru walked off.

The next day, at the mountain pass, everyone were getting ready to do more mountain climbing.

"Can't I come?" Max nagged Paul, using the universal puppy dog eyes expression.

"No, you're too young." Paul impatiently said, ignoring the cute looks.

"Aww, maybe next time." Hikari patted Max on the head while he sulked.

"I'm hungry." Reimaru said randomly.

"Then go get a rabbit." Tachi suggested.

"I'm hungry for souls!" Reimaru yowled. Shadow turned to Maria.

"Now, we should have walked with holy water, silver bullets and demon seals." he whispered. Right on cue, Akemi, who was still on Reimaru's back, decided to wake up.

"Ow…effing snake…" he muttered. He looked around, and saw that he was on Reimaru's back.

"I'm a Kyuubi rider! Awesome!" he cheered. Reimaru turned his head to look at him.

"If you value your life human, get of my back." he threatened in a dark voice. Akemi quickly jumped off, landing on something that was soft.

"Thank Amaterasu for that patch of grass!" he walked off, leaving a rather squashed and growling Samuel. Shadow sniggered at the husky, and he got up, snarling.

"TO THE DESERT!" Tachi howled, charging down the path.

Meanwhile, behind a random rock, Diamond was watching. She smiled to herself, and decided to follow after them.


	25. McBaldy attacks!

_Dun dun dun DAAAA! Did my work experience today (doing it for two weeks) and it went well! Thanks to the reviewers!_

Chapter 24: McBaldy attacks!

*theme song plays*

Sonic stared out at the vast desert, looking shocked. He slowly turned to Shadow.

"We have to cross that?" he shouted, pointing at the desert.

"Yes. It'll be easy. There's a village that we'll find in a few hours."

"But it's so hot…"

"Oh, shut up! Look at Tachi, she's doing fine!" Shadow gestured at Tachi, who was happily sitting on a rock.

"…Grr…" Samuel growled.

"So let's go."

The group walked into the baking desert. There wasn't anything much to see, except for a few patches of burnt up grass, and the occasional cactus.

"So thirsty…" Akemi groaned. Shadow just gave him a bottle of water.

"I think…I can see a rainbow 3DS over there! And a copy of Okamiden!" Hikari rushed off to the 3DS, only to find out it was a rock.

"Aww.."

"Shadow, we better be going the right way." Reimaru growled.

"Of course we are-oh, a snake." Shadow watched as a snake slithered up to him. It started hissing, and shaking its tail, making a rattling noise.

"Rattlesnake!" Tachi shouted, her fur standing up in fright. Shadow just calmly kicked the snake away into the distance.

"That thing could have bit you!"

"I'm immune to poison."

As they went on, Samuel started trailing behind, growling quietly to himself. Maria turned back to see him sitting down, panting.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come to the desert with a husky…" she said to Shadow.

"He'll be fine."

"Caw!" Shadow looked up to see a few vultures circling in the sky.

"Woof?" Samuel barked, looking up.

"Fine. We'll take a break."

"HOT!" Sonic yelled, jumping up from the rock he was sitting on. Shadow just facepalmed, and asked himself why he couldn't just leave everyone. He sighed to himself, and wandered off, looking grumpy. He carefully sat down on a cool rock (even though that seems kind of impossible) and just stared into space. He was just getting into that right frame of mind when Samuel appeared in front of him.

"Oh, not you…" Shadow sighed.

"Woof! Grr!" Samuel snarled at Shadow.

"Maybe you'll be stuck like that for the rest of your life." Shadow said, looking hopeful.

"PRIMEVAL!" Tachi shouted in the background.

"There's probably some tiny spider or something, or…" Shadow turned to see Tachi run up to him.

"Shadow! Have you watched Primeval?" she asked urgently.

"I don't know what it is and I don't really care."

"OK, because…THE UNDERGROUND THINGS ARE ATTACKING!" Tachi yowled, panicking.

"What underground-"

"Woof!" Samuel suddenly vanished in a poof of sand.

"THEY TOOK HIM!" Tachi howled, freaking out. Shadow just looked puzzled, but he shrugged it off and went to see what the problem was. He found some people running up and down screaming, while others tried to figure out what was going on. Shadow leapt out of the way as Blade was thrown at him out of nowhere.

"Blade! What's going on?" he asked.

"Some creatures are pulling people under the sand, and then throwing them back up." Blade said simply.

"Creatures?"

"Darn it!" Blade yelled, getting pulled underground. Maria ran over to Shadow.

"It's like an episode of Primeval!" she shouted.

"Oh, for the love of-" Shadow was cut off as he was yanked down by something. He thrashed around in the sand, and was flung back out, landing next to Maria.

"Ow." he got up, shaking sand out of his fur.

"-So, we have to get everyone to stop moving, because the scorpions can sense vibrations!" Maria explained.

"Oh, why can't I have a normal day, without giant scorpions trying to suffocate me?" Shadow muttered. He quickly jumped onto a rock, and bellowed,

"STOP MOVING!"

Everyone paused to look at him.

"Thank you. Now, let's calmly sit down, and figure out what's going on-" Shadow sensed something creeping up behind him, and jumped down from the rock. A robot claw missed him by a few inches.

"It can't be…" he said, looking up. A fat dude was sitting in a robot that looked like a giant scorpion, laughing his head off.

"MUHAHAHAHA! I HAVE FINALLY FOUND YOU!" he laughed evilly.

"Just when my day couldn't get any more annoying, YOU show up." Shadow growled.

"ZOMG, IT'S THAT OLD GUY!" Hikari yelled in the background.

"OLD? I'LL SHOW YOU OLD!"

Shadow sweatdropped as he heard shouting and complaining. Then Eggman (because that's who the fat dude was) coughed loudly.

"Hello? Isn't anyone going to say something?" he asked.

"Alright! I haven't seen you for a while, Eggy!" Sonic said, zooming over.

"You blue pest!"

"What's your evil plot this time?"

"On no account will I tell you that my plan is to steal the Orb of Duty!" Eggman shouted triumphantly. Everyone facepalmed as Eggman realised his epic fail.

"Why is he in my family?" Maria muttered, sweatdropping.

"Doctor, can't you come back later? It's not a good time." Shadow explained.

"NO!"

Then Eggman finally spotted Maria.

"AHHHH! GHOST! GHOST!"

"Where? Oh, wait…"

"HOW CAN YOU BE ALIVE? IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"

"Not really. Shadow came back from the dead three times, so why can't Maria come back?" Tails commented randomly.

"Hmm, this puts a small dent in my plan, but…WHERE IS THE ORB OF DUTY?" Eggman yelled, pointing many missiles at Shadow.

"How the *BEEP* am I supposed to know?" Shadow yawned.

"Spindash!" Sonic foolishly shouted, curling into a ball and shooting himself at the robot. The scorpion just batted him away.

"Orb of Duty, huh? It sounds familiar, but I can't remember." Shadow mumbled.

"CALL OF DUTAY!" Akemi yelled, smashing a robot scorpion's head in with a rock.

"Oh yeah…that game…sorry Doctor, we can't give you it." Shadow said.

"Then I'll shoot you!" Eggman was about to shoot, when a sandy grey furball flew out of the ground and landed on his robot.

"Why is there a dog on my beautiful, recently polished, flea free and clean robot?" he wondered.

"Great, that dog didn't suffocate…" Shadow growled to himself.

Samuel jumped up, and looked down at Eggman, snarling. The fat guy saw the purple orb hanging off Samuel's bandanna.

"So you're a Canine Warrior! I'll just take your orb…" Eggman sent a robot claw after Samuel, but he jumped down, barking.

"Get back here, you mutt!"

Samuel darted past Shadow, who picked him up.

"GRRRR!" the dog growled angrily, trying to get out of Shadow's grasp.

"You really want this dog?" Shadow asked Eggman.

"Well, I'd rather have the treasure…"

"No, I insist, take him!" Shadow said, dropping Samuel right next to the robot.

"No thanks…"

"TAKE HIM!" Shadow yelled, waving at Samuel, who was sweatdropping.

"OK then…I'll take the treasure, but leave the dog…he looks vicious." Eggman snatched the orb off Samuel, then scurried off in his scorpion, cackling in victory.

"COME BACK HERE AND TAKE THE DOG!" Shadow yowled after Eggman. Samuel approached him, snarling.

"YOU *BEEPING* HEDGEHOG! IF I HAD MY MACHINE GUN…" Samuel barked at Shadow, who backed away.

"You can talk? Damn it…"

"Yes, but it seems that I'm still a dog…" Samuel turned to see everyone staring at him, with O_O expressions.

"What?"

"You're a husky…" Paul sniggered.

"Isn't this just effing great? I'm related to a husky. A freaking dog." Akemi said, looking grumpy.

"Oh, shut it! All of you! We have to go get that orb back!"

"Why did I leave home?" Shadow asked, facepalming.

"SUPER JACKAL NINJA ATTACK!" a voice shouted. Shadow turned to see a feral jackal leaping at him, and then everything went dark.

_Yup, the ninja jackals are attacking. HIDE THE CHILDREN, START YOUR CARS! THEY'RE HERE, AND THEY'RE DEADLY!_

_Oh yeah, and…_

_Orb of Duty= Call of Duty?_

Canine Warrior Gi: SHUT UP, AND STOP MAKING A MOCKERY OF MY ORB, HUMAN!


	26. Tachi The Exile

_Another update, *BEEP* YEAH!_

_Quote of the week:_

'I'm in your village, blowing shit up, un.' –Deidara (_I think…if you look at the Naruto Shippuden opening, it has that message at the end! I have to admit, before I actually knew about Naruto, I thought Deidara was a girl. XD)_

Captain Hande-_I don't know…Orb Of Duty has a ring to it…Orb Of Duty: Japanese Warfare. ^_^ Don't tell Gi I said that._

Chapter 25: Tachi the exile

*theme song plays*

Shadow groaned slowly, and opened one eye. He seemed to be in some dark ancient ruins, in a small cell. He tried moving around, and realised he was tied up.

"I wonder what happened…" he thought. He heard quiet footsteps, and quickly pretended to be asleep again.

"It looks like Stripes is still knocked out." a voice said. Shadow felt himself being poked.

"What do you think they were doing on our territory?" another voice asked.

"I don't know, but Tachi was with them…I can't believe that pup has the nerve to stroll back into our territory, knowing she was banished…"

"So…what should we do with these creatures?" 

"Well, they were with an exile, so most likely they'll be punished along with her."

"But this here hedgehog…I'm getting bad vibes from him!"

"Shut up, Sandy! He might wake up…let's get out of here."

The two mysterious speakers left, and Shadow looked up, taking more notice of his surroundings. He tugged at the ropes, and easily snapped them.

"Right…let's see what those two were talking about…" he muttered, walking out of the cell. The hedgehog cautiously peered around the corner, and saw a feral jackal sitting at one end of the corridor, its back to him. He tiptoed to the other end, and was yanked into another cell.

"Hey what are you-" he stopped struggling as he saw Maria.

"Are you ok Shadow?" she asked. Shadow nodded.

"What happened? Where are we?"

"Well, I think we were ambushed by ninjas or something…and these ruins…well, we're still in the desert."

"Have you seen anyone else yet?"

"No…"

There was some loud yelping, and barking. Shadow looked up.

"Let's go see what happened…"

As they walked out of the cell, a dark brown jackal was sent flying past them. Samuel came running up, barking.

"WOOF! Tie me up, will you?" Samuel barked angrily.

"Oh, you…you do know you've been barking like a dog, right?" Shadow asked.

"Oh really? I don't know why I do that, woof…." Samuel said, tilting his head.

"You did it again."

"Maybe I've been a dog for too long, woof woof…."

"We should find everyone, and get out of this place…"

They continued down the passage, until they found Blade, Spark and Ace wandering around, apparently lost.

"Oh, hey guys." Blade greeted them.

"Have you found a way out of these ruins yet, woof?" Samuel asked.

"No…some jackals dragged Tachi off while we were tied up. So we're looking for her." Ace explained.

"It seems that Tachi's some kind of exile…I heard some people talking about it." Shadow muttered.

"Exile? Tachi never said anything…"

"SUPER JACKAL NINJA ATTACK PACK GO!" a voice shouted. Shadow felt something jump on his back, knocking him onto the ground. He looked around to see everyone else in the same position.

"Now, we'll take you to our leader! She'll decide what to do with you!" the voice said. Shadow stared as a jackal with white patches and brown fur walked into his view, and growled in his face.

"Get moving already!" the jackal barked.

"What the *BEEP*? A small jackal?" Shadow said in shock.

"I'm not small! Now move it before I own ya!"

Shadow quickly stood up, and saw eight other jackals. Blade just glared at them.

"What did you do with Tachi?" he shouted.

"Oh, the exile's fine…for now. Get moving already!" the jackal poked Shadow with a paw.

They were led to a large hall, where there were two other jackals. One, a jackal with black fur was sitting on top of a rock, and she was wearing a silver bracelet. The other jackal paced around, occasionally stopping to growl and snap at a scared Tachi, who was huddled in the corner, her fur bristling.

"So these are the outsiders you were talking about." the black jackal spoke to Tachi.

"Yeah…now, it would be really nice if you could let them go?" Tachi said, her ears flattened down. The other jackal, a huge grey one, snarled at her.

"Keep your mouth shut, house pet!" he snapped. Tachi backed further into the corner.

"Leader, these are the outsiders that we caught in our territory. There are others." the jackal with white patches said.

"Bring them all in." the leader ordered. The patched jackal dipped his head, and walked out.

"So…what do you want?" Shadow asked. He jumped as the grey jackal lunged at him.

"Don't speak to the leader like that, you flea bitten rat!" he growled. Shadow glared at him, and summoned a Chaos spear. There was a gasp from the other jackals.

"Look! He uses magic!" one whispered.

"Just who are these people?" another one hissed.

Shadow just sweatdropped, and made the Chaos spear disappear. The leader stared at him, and flicked her ears.

"Outsiders, you're in the territory of the desert jackals. You have the honour of speaking to me, Tani. Now, state why you were trespassing." she growled.

"We didn't know this was your land! We were just passing through to go to Soleanna!" Shadow shouted.

"Then, why is there an exile, a bakeneko, a canine warrior and a demon fox travelling in your group? Even you look…shady." Tani said, narrowing her eyes at Shadow.

"Wow, she's good." Ace whispered to Maria.

"But how can she notice all of those things?" Maria wondered. Tani politely coughed.

"We jackals have sensitive hearing, so it'll be wise to just speak normally."

"Oh."

"As I was saying, we didn't know anything about your territory. You should have put a sign up or something. Now, we'll leave quietly and not come back again." Shadow finished.

"I think not. You outsiders were travelling with an exile…our laws state that this is punishable by…death." Tani snarled.

"Death? This is madness! Madness! Woof!" Samuel randomly barked.

"THIS IS THE DESERT!" the grey jackal snapped at Samuel, who sweatdropped.

"And for speaking out of turn to a leader, that is punishable by…death!" Tani shouted. Everyone just facepalmed.

"Tani! You can't kill them! This is my fault!" Tachi yelped.

"Joint enterprise Tachi, joint enterprise."

The rest of the people were shoved into the room. Sonic looked around.

"Whoa! I've seen some random things in my lifetime, but this takes the biscuit! I mean, ninja talking jackals?" he said, sweatdropping. Tani turned to the grey jackal.

"Remind me to have a talk with Patch on his whole ninja idea thing." she whispered. The grey jackal nodded.

"Now you're all here, I can discuss the sentence. You have four choices."

"Go on." Shadow muttered.

"There is death by sandstorm, where you're left out in a sandstorm obviously."

"No thanks…I wanted to die in peace, not burnt by sand, woof." Samuel shuddered.

"Death by freedom-"

"We'll take that one!" Sonic shouted. Tani ignored him.

"-Where you're led out into the vast desert to slowly roast in the sun."

"Delightful." Shadow muttered.

"Death by snake, where you're eaten by snakes, and finally, death by mortal combat." Tani finished.

"OK…what's the mortal combat one about?" Shadow asked.

"I set three of my finest pack members on three people. If they lose, the charges are dropped. If not, we go ahead with death by rock."

"And death by rock is, let me guess, some boulders are rolled on us?" Shadow guessed.

"Precisely!" Tani barked. Shadow turned to his teammates.

"I think we may have a chance with either death by freedom, or death by mortal combat." he said.

"But they sound so…violent…" Maria whispered.

"HEY LADY! Do you have death by old age?" Sonic shouted to Tani.

"Little annoying blue rat…in your case, there's death by 'shut up or I'll eat your face off!" Tani growled, baring her teeth. Sonic kept quiet.

"We've decided to take death by mortal combat!" Shadow yelled. Tani nodded, and jumped down.

"I'll get the other fighters." the grey jackal said, running off.

"Right…I'll fight. Anyone else?" Shadow asked.

"I'll fight too!" Tachi shouted, jumping up.

"No offense Tachi, but I don't think you can fight."

"Oh really? I'll show you my hidden power!" Tachi did a backflip and turned into a small rat.

"I don't think that's going to-" Shadow's eyes widened as Tachi summoned a sword out of nowhere and started spinning it around.

"Why do you think my name's Tachi?" she asked.

"A rat…with a sword…bigger than herself…" Shadow mumbled in surprise, turning around.

"Then I guess I'm joining too." Blade said.

A few minutes later, Blade, Shadow and Tachi were in an arena, getting ready to fight. Three jackals walked in front of them, hissing and snarling.

"This fight should be easy. After all, they're only jackals." Shadow assumed. Tachi just sighed.

"Trust me Shadow, these guys are fast…"

"Let the challenge begin!" Tani howled. The jackals ran in different directions, and started attacking.

"Tachi, remind me to listen to you more often!" Shadow shouted, trying to keep a jackal from biting him.

"Oh, I will." Tachi cheerfully hit another jackal on the head as he was creeping up behind her. A few minutes (yes, minutes, the jackals didn't stand a chance against Shadow anyway) the team had won. Shadow turned to Tani, who snarled.

"You three did well…you can take your freedom, and this treasure, the Orb of Brotherhood." Tani threw an orange orb to Shadow.

"Now, get off our territory and don't come back!"

Everyone retreated out of the ruins quickly.

"That was close." Maria said.

"Close? We could have broken out of there anytime." Blade muttered. He turned to see Tachi walking off.

"Hey! Tachi! Where are you going?" he shouted.

"I put you in danger! I must go, and not come back!" Tachi cried back.

"But we don't care!"

Tachi paused, and walked back to Blade.

"If you're fine with being in the company of an exile…" she muttered.

Hours later, it was nightfall. The tents were set up, and Blade was sitting with Shadow, just poking at the sand.

"There's something on your mind, isn't there?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Just go and talk to Tachi. You sulking around won't do anything."

"It's not that, it's…never mind." Blade said, looking away.

"I know what your problem is." Shadow smirked.

"Oh, please tell." Blade muttered sarcastically.

"I've been noticing for a while now…you like Tachi."

"Of course I do. She's my friend."

"No, I mean like as in…love." Shadow whispered. Blade went a light red colour, and thanked Chaos that he had fur to hide it.

"What's it to you?" Blade stammered, looking uncomfortable.

"Just go and tell her."

"No! I don't know…how she'll react." Blade got up and ran off. Shadow just sat back, grinning. Then he felt someone grab his shoulders.

"Hello, Shady." Diamond hissed in his ears.

"Not you…" Shadow grumbled. Diamond sat down next to him.

"Yes. Me. I have something to say…" she paused, blushing. Shadow backed away from her.

"Oh HELL NO!" he shouted.

"Yes, I…fancy you. And it's quite embarrassing for me to admit it." Diamond said, coming closer to Shadow.

"Keep away! You crazy ninja ferret!" Shadow shouted. Randomly, Samuel came running past, with Reimaru chasing after him.

"GET BACK HERE! DON'T YOU WANT TO BE HUMAN AGAIN?" Reimaru roared after Samuel.

"I don't trust demon foxes, woof!" Samuel barked back. Reimaru just stopped chasing him, and grabbed the poor husky with one of his tails.

"I hope I can get this right…Oh Orb of Brotherhood! Lend me your power, and let me turn this…angry short tempered dog back into a human!" Reimaru called. There was a bright flash, and Samuel was back to normal. Reimaru dropped him.

"Hey, I'm human again, woof!" Samuel sweatdropped as he heard the bark.

"Yeah, that bark thing is going to be staying with you for a few weeks."

"Woof…I mean, I'm going to get some coffee." Samuel walked off. Reimaru turned to hear Shadow calling for help, and saw Diamond hugging him.

"Rei! Get her off me!" Shadow begged.

"Just get a room." Reimaru walked off, leaving Shadow to be smothered by an overly happy Diamond.

_BTW, 'Rei' is Reimaru's nickname. Usually, if you call him by his nickname, he goes Rampaging Kyuubi on you, and rips your head off. _

Reimaru: Hmm…I could do with some nice, tasty creative souls…*looks at reviewers and licks lips*

_O_O….Ok…don't forget to keep reviewing!_


	27. Team Outcast!

_Update time!_

Tachi: Captain Hande and Lucy Labrador, you get a free box of cookies and a Sammy plushie, because you've been the only reviewers in a while!

_Wait…what are they going to do with a Sammy plushie?_

Tachi: I don't know.

Disclaimer: _I only own Swift and my OCs, no official characters! Aby belongs to Lucy Labrador, Kaze belongs to…erm…the dude in my ICT class? Well, a shout out for Terry, and YES, that's your nickname._

_A note: I asked Terry if I could change the name of his OC to avoid confusion with someone else's and he agreed. _

Chapter 26: Team Outcast!

*theme song plays*

The next day, Maria was walking through the camp, looking for Shadow. She was getting worried, as she hadn't seen him last night. She walked over to an odd pile of sand, and poked at it. A sandy hedgehog jumped up, panting and looking around wildly.

"Oh, it's just you Maria…" Shadow relaxed.

"Yeah…why were you hiding in the sand?" Maria asked.

"That insane ninja ferret's been after me again…she's acting like a rabid fangirl now." Shadow shuddered, carefully gazing around the area to see if there were any ferrets in sight.

"Who, Diamond? I thought we had left her in the forest…"

"She's been stalking me. Literally."

"We better get ready to go then…Soleanna's not far now! We just have to get out of this desert, and go through the small forest."

So, the group managed to finally get to Soleanna by midday. Shadow smiled a little, feeling the breeze on his fur.

"Ah, Soleanna, city of-"

"WATER! IT'S EVERYWHERE!" Sonic interrupted him, wailing from the top of a lamppost.

"Sonikku, my dear! Get down so we can go shopping together!" Amy called up. Sonic just screamed louder.

"Right…I guess everyone's going to do their own thing now." Shadow watched as Akemi dragged Paul and Hikari away.

"I heard there was a great weapons store around here!" the teen said in excitement. Paul sweatdropped.

"I'm going to the museum! There might be something shiny that we can…borrow!" Tachi ran to the museum, Blade and Spark chasing after her.

"Oh, how nice to just leave the blind fox…" Brook growled.

"It looks like there's a bookstore over there. Let's check it out." Ace, Brook and Strike walked off.

"I guess that leaves us and-Samuel?" Shadow asked, seeing the Commander lurking around as usual.

"Didn't Maria say there was a library or something?" he asked. Shadow turned to look at Maria, who was whistling innocently.

"I guess I could terrorize a few people..." Reimaru muttered, about to stalk off. Samuel grabbed him by the shoulder.

"You do know who's going to have to explain why there's a giant demon fox chasing people? That's right, me. You and Shadow are staying RIGHT where I can see you! WOOF!" Samuel glared at Reimaru, who shrugged.

"I'd keep my mouth shut if I were you, you're still barking." he noted.

"THAT'S IT! EAT LEAD, YOU DEMON WOOF!" Samuel pulled out his gun, and pointed it at Reimaru.

"AHHHH! HELP, HELP! THERE'S A MAD GUY TRYING TO KILL ME!" Reimaru yelled, pretending to look scared. People pointed and gasped, and Samuel quickly put his weapon away.

"Let's just go to this library, before I shoot someone…woof."

They found the library, and went inside. There were a few people sitting at computers, a librarian at the desk, and some bookshelves. Shadow turned to Maria.

"So...this cat…didn't he say how to find these guides?" he asked.

"He just said they wouldn't be people who we expected." Maria shrugged.

"Let's split up and start looking then." Shadow went off to the desk, while the others looked around.

Shadow found a dog furry sitting at a desk, reading a book. He decided to walk past, but the girl looked up.

"Wow, it's Shadow!" she shouted excitedly. Shadow backed away.

"Please tell me you're not a rabid fangirl." he said slowly.

"I'm not! Don't worry..." the dog smiled.

"Now…do you know where I can find mysterious guides who seem to know about a hidden location?" Shadow asked.

"Hmmm…no. I think you're asking the wrong person."

"OK then…"

"But…I do know about these ruins in the forest."

"…" Shadow stared at the dog.

"I'm Aby." the dog introduced herself.

"Right…" Shadow yelled out silently in his mind.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the library, Samuel and Reimaru were sitting near a bookshelf. Opposite them, a cat furry was in the corner, concentrating on reading her book.

"Do you think we should ask that cat?" Samuel whispered.

"I'll ask. She'll only scream down the place if some random oldie goes up to her." Reimaru walked over to the cat, who ignored him.

"Hello? Acknowledge my presence?" Reimaru asked. The cat continued reading.

"Are you a guide?"

The cat looked up from her book, and then looked back. She sighed, and shuffled around.

"I'm losing my patience, mortal." Reimaru hissed, getting annoyed.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" the cat asked. Reimaru took a deep breath and started getting ready to lay down some demon powers, but Samuel came over.

"I'll handle this. I have a way with kids, woof." Samuel muttered to Reimaru, who backed away.

"So…what's your name kid?"

"My mum always said not to talk to strangers." the cat muttered, still reading her book.

"Well, I'm the Commander." Samuel said, looking epic.

The cat slowly looked up, flattening her ears.

"Grey hair, odd eyes…MEOOW!" the feline jumped up, dropped her book, and backed away.

"Oh, I won't hurt you, we just need to know if you're a guide or not-" Samuel was hit with a copy of The Order of the Phoenix, and the cat ran off, shrieking.

"A way with kids…note to self, never get Samuel to babysit…" Reimaru muttered. He got slapped on the head with a random copy of New Moon.

"Just shut it, woof." Samuel hissed.

In yet another part of the library, Maria saw a wolf furry playing a DS. She walked over.

"What are you playing?" she asked.

"Pokémon Black….LEVEL 81, BANG!" the wolf shouted suddenly.

"I have that game…so, you're..?"

"Kaze. LEVELED UP AGAIN!" Kaze whooped.

"Do you know anyone who might know about any ruins?"

"Hmm…there's some ruins not far away. I could take you there." Kaze looked up, and saw Maria.

"Hey, you look familiar…" he muttered.

"I'm Maria!"

Kaze just stared in silence, his eye twitching. The only sound that could be heard was some distant screaming, and a cough from a random person.

"GHOST! GHOST GIRL! SHADOW! AHHHH!" Kaze went running off, screaming. Maria just facepalmed.

"I need to get a disguise…" she said.

Back with Shadow, he was still talking to Aby.

"So, you're on a team?" he asked. Aby nodded.

"We're called Team Outcast. I don't know where Kaze and Swift are, but they're the other members."

"They must be the other guides then." Shadow looked up and a cat ran past him screaming. Samuel and Reimaru ran up.

"Let's just wait for that cat to calm down." Reimaru panted.

"Yeah, we'll find her later." Samuel muttered.

"Who are you people?" Aby asked. Shadow turned around.

"Well, this is Reimaru, and that other dude is Samuel-" Shadow realised he was talking to a dust cloud, and turned back to see Aby sprinting after the cat.

"Great, you idiot, you scared her off." Reimaru glared at Samuel.

"I did not! You did, probably because of your freaky eyes…" Samuel muttered.

"You should be the last person to talk about freaky eyes, you hypocrite!"

"GUYS!" Shadow shouted. They looked at him.

"We have to go after them and explain what's going on." he explained.

"Fat chance, one look at Sammy here and they raced off." Reimaru scoffed.

"Well, I would be too if some random guy came up to me. Samuel, stay here." Shadow and Reimaru ran off, leaving Samuel behind.

"Well, at least things can't get any worse…" Samuel muttered. Right on cue, some of his fangirls walked in.

"ZOMG, IT'S SAMMY! GET HIM BEFORE HE RU NS AWAY!" the leader screamed. Samuel ran off, being chased by fangirls.

"Get lost! I'm freaking older than Shadow, for Chaos' sake!" he yelled back.

"But those Shadow fangirls still chase Shadow around…" one fangirl muttered.

"At least there aren't any Shadow fangirls." Samuel sighed.

"ZOMG, IT'S SAMUEL! ATTACK HIM!" a group of Shadow fangirls ran after Samuel.

"WHY ME?"

Shadow and Reimaru came across a desk. Aby and the cat were hiding under it.

"Do you think he's gone?" Aby whispered to the cat.

"I don't know, but I'm not going out there!" the cat shuddered. There was some loud knocking on the desk, and Reimaru came into view.

"You can come out now…that guy's busy." he said.

"Busy doing what?"

"GET THE *BEEP* AWAY FROM ME, YOU BRATS!" Samuel yelled, running past with some girls after him.

"I have to remember that trick next time…" Shadow muttered. The two teens came out from under the desk.

"Shadow? Fluffy? SQUEE!" the cat yowled in glee. Shadow sweatdropped, while Reimaru looked jealous.

"Why don't I have these…fangirls? I used to be worshipped like a god!" he complained.

"Only because people were afraid you'd eat them. Besides, you don't want fangirls…"

"Why are you here anyway? I mean, we don't have a Chaos emerald…" the cat said.

"We're here because some random guy said we had to find guides here, to lead us to some ruins."

"Then why is Sammy here? I thought you didn't get on well with him…" Aby frowned, watching as Samuel ran past again, with the girls following.

"He's just here to be annoying." Reimaru growled.

"Oh…"

"GHOST! GHOST! GHOST TRICK! AHHH!" Kaze ran past, and slowed down as he saw Shadow.

"Shadow! Your girlfriend is chasing me!" he shouted.

"She's not my girlfriend…I think…" Shadow pondered. Maria walked up.

"Kaze, I'm not like the Tails Doll! Whatever that is!" she shouted. Kaze just hid behind a chair. Maria sighed, and turned to Shadow.

"I need to get a disguise, I think." she said.

"Ghost…" Aby whispered, her eyes wide.

"Oh, if you think that's bad, he's a demon fox who likes devouring souls." Shadow pointed at Reimaru, who howled. Aby stared, and then silently fainted.

"Yes, that's more like it! People being scared of me!" Reimaru barked. He turned to the cat, who was a pale colour.

"Aren't you going to faint too?" he asked. The cat shook her head.

"I'm a little freaked out, but I'm used to this supernatural stuff…"

"Oh, an expert." Reimaru sulked.

"Anyway, I'm Swift. And I think you've met Aby and Kaze. We're Team Outcast!" Swift shouted.

"I wasn't expecting a bunch of kids, but fine…I guess we have no choice but to ask you lot to lead us to the ruins."

"Oh, we will. If HE doesn't try anything funny." Swift pointed at Samuel, who was still running for his life. He slowed down, and was immediately buried under screaming fangirls. Reimaru sniggered.

"Do you think we should rescue him?" he asked Shadow. The hedgehog shrugged as the fangirls began to fight over which group got to keep Samuel.

"Let's just leave him there."

Meanwhile, Blade, Tachi and Spark were at the museum, looking at some ancient jewellery. Tachi had her face pressed against the glass, her eyes sparkling as they took in the sight of the fabled shiny.

"If only Rouge was here…" she sighed. Blade looked away, thinking to himself.

"Should I take Shadow's advice? She might say no…" he thought. He decided to get what he had to say out.

"Tachi?"

"Yes, Blade?"

"I lo-"

"HEY! CAN I HAVE SOME MONEY TO GO TO THE STORE?" Spark interrupted. Blade growled, and gave Spark some change.

"And stay away from that Mountain Dew!" he shouted as Spark ran off to the souvenir shop. He turned back to Tachi, who was examining the security system protecting the treasure.

"Tachi…this is going to sound weird, but…" Blade mumbled. Tachi blinked.

"What is it?"

As Blade struggled to find the right words, Spark was in the shop. He carefully picked up a bottle of Mountain Dew and stuck it in his pocket, and then he picked up some keyrings, and went to pay for them. Along the way, a human boy stepped in his path.

"Excuse me." Spark tried to get past, but the boy picked him up.

"Now…give me your money!" the boy said, glaring into Spark's frightened eyes.

"You better drop me, or I'll get medieval on you!" he threatened. The boy just sneakily kicked him.

"Shut up, and hand over the money, or I'll teach you a lesson." he replied angrily, trying to look tough. Spark growled and his eyes went red. A few moments later, the boy was staring at a rather mad wolf, and the customers were running and screaming.

Outside, Blade noticed the commotion happening, and he ran over. A boy rushed out, being chased by a wolf.

"Not again…" Blade facepalmed, and went over to Spark with Tachi. The boy managed to escape Spark's attacks, and fled out though the entrance.

"Spark, calm down! That kid's nothing." Blade said. Spark's eyes turned back to their normal colour, and he sat down, whimpering.

"I think you should change back, before we get shot at."

Spark growled, and huffed. He looked at Blade with a slightly shocked expression.

"You can't change back?" Blade yelled in shock. Spark nodded.

"We're dead." Tachi barked cheerfully.

"We could sneak him out though the back exit…" Blade sighed. Now he would have to put his plans on hold for now, and tell Tachi later.

Back with the others and Team Outcast, they were walking down the road. Reimaru was grinning at Aby and Swift, who were walking well on the other side of the pavement.

"That guy's giving me the evil eye…" Swift whispered to Aby.

"Maybe if we just act normal, he'll get bored…" Aby whispered back. Kaze was happily walking next to Shadow, but he had one eye on Maria.

"Kaze, I'm not going to attack you!" Maria tried speaking to him. Kaze just backed away even more. Then Samuel turned up, looking like he'd been in a fight.

"Those fangirls…I think it's safe to say that maybe I should be recruiting them as elite agents…" Samuel muttered. He noticed Swift, who quickly zoomed over to Shadow.

"You're that feline who hit me with a book!" he shouted. Swift just started rocking back and forth.

"Happy place, happy place…" she whispered. Aby took one look at the angry man, and walked to the other side of the pavement.

"Heh heh…hello." Reimaru smirked evilly at her. The poor dog went pale, and backed away as Reimaru smiled.

"Keep away! What have I done to you?" she shouted. Reimaru thought.

"Hmm…not much, really. I just enjoy mortals cringing when I look at them." he said.

"Reimaru, can you please stop acting so creepy?" Maria asked. Reimaru looked away angrily.

"He can smell fear." Shadow muttered to Aby. Samuel was still glaring at Swift, who had her fur bristling in fright.

"I should arrest you now…woof…oh Chaos, that bark's back!" Samuel sweatdropped as Swift tried not to snigger at his bark.

"I'm watching you…woof…"

On the rooftops, the black and white cat was watching. He stalked away.

"Tsuki will be pleased to hear this…" he said to himself.


	28. The Moonlit Ruins

_Triple update!_

_Pathetic excuses for not updating:_

_Lazyness_

_Typing other story_

_Reading other fanfiction_

_Chores_

_Keeping my Netbook from over heating _

_And…annoying the crap out of the other characters._

_Disclaimer: _

Chapter 27: The Moonlit ruins

*theme song plays*

Blade carefully looked around a corner. It was nightfall in Soleanna, and he was hiding in an alleyway. He signalled to someone behind him, and Tachi came along, leading a moving white sheet. Spark stuck his head out and whined.

"Shush! We're doing this so we don't get shot at." Blade hissed. Spark looked at the sign on him, which read, 'Totally NOT a wolf. :3' and sweatdropped.

"OK, come on…the coast is clear." They snuck across the road, and hid in the shadows of another alleyway.

"We can't stay out here all night, can we?" Tachi asked.

"Well, I don't have any money on me. Besides, it isn't so bad out here."

Tachi searched around in her pockets, and drew out some money.

"How did you get that much?" Blade said in shock.

"Oh, I hit a guy over the head a few months back and took it from him. He was after the shinies I had." Tachi smiled, and Blade made a mental note to never steal Tachi's belongings in the future. He still had to tell her about that…other thing.

"I'm going to a hotel. You guys can come if you want." Tachi walked off.

"Wait! How are we supposed to sneak Spark into the hotel?" Blade called after her.

"Though the kitchen. I'll check in, and distract the staff while you go though the kitchen with him. It shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"Fine…" Blade and Spark followed after Tachi.

Meanwhile, in the nearby forest, the others were walking through some ruins.

"I still don't get why we had to wait until moonrise to walk in here." Shadow muttered.

"There's a hidden door somewhere in these ruins. When the full moon is up, it appears. We've never been able to get though the other door to the other side though…" Swift explained.

"I really don't like this place…" Reimaru mumbled.

"Are you scared?" Aby wondered. Reimaru glared at her and she flinched.

"No! I'm not!" the demon shouted. He looked away, still looking unsure.

"Well, this is the door…" Swift said, stopping in front of a glowing door, with runes around it. Shadow looked uncertain.

"I'm not sure about going in there…"

"Oh, it'll be fine!" Swift opened the door, and ran through. The group followed after her. On the other side, there was a grassy clearing, with a few stones and a dead end.

"I don't think this is the right way…let's turn back." Shadow turned around, and saw the feral black and white cat sitting there, looking rather pleased with himself.

"You've made it though the hidden gateway. Now…can you go though the other door?" he asked, smiling.

"No, we can't!"

"Let me show you how. Your friend, the bakeneko, should watch as well." the cat looked at Maria, who was puzzled. He walked up to the wall, and placed a paw on it. A secret door slid open, and he looked back.

"Only the power of the crystal can unlock this door. See you on the other side!" the cat went thorough, and the door closed behind him.

"Do you know that cat?" Aby asked Shadow. He nodded.

"But we don't know why he's been leading us here…"

"I've got it! I know how to get though the door!" Maria shouted.

"How?"

Maria held out a glowing crystal, and the door opened.

"Wow. I think that cat likes you." Shadow said. Everyone went though, and the door slammed shut behind them.

"I hate it when doors do that…" Reimaru growled.

"I guess we should continue and find another exit later."

They climbed up the stairs, where the cat was waiting for them.

"Not far now…follow me to the temple." he beckoned to them, and walked off. They followed after him, and found themselves in a grassy plain, where the moon was shining down, making the grass glow with dim light. Shadow looked around in amazement, as he saw a few cats watching him from a distance.

"It's just so peaceful here…" he sighed. All too suddenly, he felt a brief pain, and yelped, nearly passing out. His vision darkened, and his sight returned to normal.

"What just happened?" he wondered, standing back up. He found himself on all fours, and tried to stand up again. He just fell flat on his face.

"AHHH! I'M A HUSKY AGAIN! WOOF!" Samuel yelled in shock behind him. Shadow got up and turned around. He saw a scruffy grey husky looking shocked, a brown labrador who looked surprised, a white cat, a grey shiba inu and a small black rat. Reimaru was standing in his fox form, looking around.

"It looks like everyone were turned into normal animals…" Shadow thought. The black and white cat walked over.

"Since we're in the spirit world now, you've all become animals that reflect your personality. Your appearance might surprise you, but you'll get used to it." he explained.

"So the animal I'm most like is…" Shadow found a small pond nearby and took a look at his face. A rather fearsome midnight black wolf with red stripes was what he saw.

"Cool…at least I'm not a chihuahua or something like that…" he said to himself. He looked up and saw Samuel glaring at him angrily.

"What's up with you?"

"…Nothing." Samuel walked off, still glancing back at Shadow. Reimaru smiled innocently at Aby, who paled and decided to walk over to the cat.

"We aren't going to stay like this forever, are we?" she asked. The cat shook his head.

"No, you'll turn back when you cross over to the living world. Now, I have to lead you to the temple. Follow me, and try and keep up!" he ran off down a path. Shadow, Aby, Kaze and Samuel had no trouble keeping up, but Swift and Maria were lagging behind.

"Won't you guys slow down and show a bit of concern to a rat?" Swift panted.

"Cats aren't supposed to be running for long distances!" Maria complained.

"Hmm…we might have to carry you two then…" Shadow said, stopping. Swift squeaked as she was picked up by Kaze, who put her on his back.

"Just hang on, ok?"

A few moments later, some cats were having a conversation by some high steps. They paused to stare as three dogs, one carrying a screaming rat, ran past. They seemed to be following a wolf, who had a cat sitting on his back. The cats sweatdropped, and carried on talking.

At the temple, the cat finally stopped and turned around.

"This is the temple. You'll find out why you're here. Tei should be along any minute now…" he stopped talking as a large mastiff, wearing an orange bandana, ran up. He had short brown fur, and some of it was missing, revealing scars.

"CLAW! YOU HAVE RETURNED!" he barked loudly.

"Yes.." the cat said quietly.

"So, your name is Claw? What kind of name is that?" Shadow asked.

"None of your business. Anyhow, this is Tei, first canine warrior and the dog who's in charge of the temple on Saturdays. Sadly, he has a habit for barking too loudly. Did I mention he has a slight problem with people trying to take away his leadership?"

"SHUT UP CAT!" Tei thundered in Claw's face. The cat didn't bat an eyelid as his fur was blown back by the force of the dog's bark.

"So, Tei here is going to explain the trials you have to pass, if you want to get the sceptre of darkness and a shard of the Moonlight crystal."

"Wait, trials? I thought we were going to get the sceptre straightaway!" Maria shouted.

"No…the guardian wants to test your skills first, to see if you can defeat Mephiles. So you'll have to pass." Claw explained.

"Shouldn't be too hard…" Samuel muttered. There was a quiet laugh from Reimaru.

"What?"

"The guardian is called Tsuki. You should be afraid, she's fearsome…she can bring back the dead with magic, and she eats souls for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I hope you brought your fire extinguisher with you, you're going to need it." the demon fox whispered, genuine fear in his eyes.

"She's a demon?" Shadow panicked.

"Yeah, but little Maria here doesn't need to fear anything. The rest of you…especially Shadow, aren't going to be protected from her flames of fury. I bid you farewell, and good luck!" Reimaru jumped down from the temple gracefully, and ran off.

"Typical fox…fleeing when the going gets tough." Claw hissed. He turned to Maria.

"Oh, and he meant to say that Tsuki won't hurt you, seeing as you're a bakeneko and all…if you're not a bakeneko, you're dinner. But she'll listen if you can defeat her."

"Maybe I should take these trials then…" Maria suggested.

"NO!" Shadow howled.

"I'll leave you lot with Tei." Claw ran down the steps, and everyone looked at Tei.

"NOW LISTEN UP, YOU MOTH EATEN MUTTS! THE TRIALS ARE DEADLY! YOU HAVE TO PASS IN ORDER TO GET THE STAFF TO FIGHT THAT DEMON HEDGEHOG!" he roared.

"Which demon hedgehog? There's one right here!" Samuel growled at Shadow, who snarled back. Tei ignored them.

"YOU MUST FACE…SEVEN…DEADLY…TRIALS!"

Aby shivered, while Swift and Kaze gulped.

"Seven…trials?" Aby repeated.

"SEVEN…DEADLY…TRIALS…OF NASTY PAINFUL DOOM!" Tei bellowed, foaming at the mouth. He continued.

"BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO PASS IT, THEY DO!" he pointed with his nose at Samuel and Shadow, who were still glaring at each other.

"Oh…but they're mortal enemies.."

"ALL ENEMIES ARE ALWAYS SENT ON TRIALS TOGETHER! IT MAKES IT MORE INTERESTING, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY START TEARING EACH OTHER TO SHREDS!"

"I'm not working with him!" Shadow yelled. Samuel just continued staring.

"YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!" Tei stamped over to Samuel, and karate kicked him though a doorway. He then yanked Shadow by the paw, and threw him after Samuel. The doorway slammed shut.

"They're going to kill each other! We have to go though!" Maria tried getting past Tei, who growled.

"ONLY THOSE TWO CAN GO ON THE TRIAL. NO ONE ELSE! NOW…WHO WANTS TO HAVE POPCORN AND LISTEN TO THE FIGHTING?"

Everyone stared at Tei, who was still foaming at the mouth.


	29. TSDTONPD FTW

_HUZZAH!_

_Disclaimer: Don't have energy to type…Tachi, type for me…_

TROLLOLOL! SWIFT DOESN'T OWNS ANY SONIC CHAREACTERS1! SHJE ONELY OWNS HER OCS AXCEPT FOR A FEW11!

_Tachi, you don't type in your feral jackal form…and this looks like trolling._

Tachi: I'm learning the technique to troll!

Chapter 28: The seven deadly trials of nasty painful DOOM!

*theme song plays*

Shadow groaned, and got up. When Tei had thrown him though the doorway, he had the misfortune to hit his head. He heard growling, and turned to see Samuel glaring at him.

"So…now I have a chance to talk, without anyone complaining…I always knew you were evil." the husky snarled.

"Look, this is neither the time nor place for this. We need to get on with the trials." Shadow said. He dodged out of the way as Samuel charged at him.

"I knew it! You were the wolf all along! You killed those people! Now you're going to pay!"

"Small problem Sammy…"

"What?"

"You're a husky." Shadow helpfully pointed out.

"Yeah, so?"

"I don't think you can kill me without any weapons. Unless you like biting people." Shadow explained.

"I would rather DIE than bite you! Disgusting!" Samuel shuddered.

"Just thought I would say that. Now, shut up and start walking." Shadow turned around, but stopped and stepped out of the way as the husky tried to charge him.

"What is your problem? Didn't I say you can't kill me?" Shadow snarled.

"Look around hedgehog…there's plenty of rocks for me to bash your head against." Samuel threatened. Shadow glanced around, and saw many rocks. He felt slightly worried, but brushed it off.

"I'm not the wolf you're talking about. S-I mean, someone else is." he said.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Yeah, because I'm smaller than the wolf, don't have any jackal or rat DNA, and I wouldn't kill someone randomly."

Samuel stared at Shadow, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth. He decided to drop the argument, and look for an opportunity to attack Shadow later.

"Fine…let's go then."

They walked into a hall with many pillars, a shiny but scorched floor, and pawprints everywhere. Shadow saw a sign on the floor, and stopped to read it.

''Oh new explorers who search for power. Bravery is an important quality in a explorer. Show your bravery to these souls. Tsuki'

"_Strange…_" he thought. Samuel looked around, and saw some cats watching them. The cats vanished behind the pillars, and fireballs started to fly around.

"Oh crap…" Shadow whimpered as a fireball burnt his tail.

"I'm not sticking around to be burnt to ash, thank you! You'd follow me if you know what's good for you!" Samuel barked, running off to the other side of the hall. Shadow followed him, dodging fire from the cats. He stopped, panting, as he reached the next room. It was a cavern with a narrow bridge across a deep chasm. Samuel cautiously kicked a stone off the edge. A distant tap echoed through the chasm.

"If you fell off here, you'd be dead." he muttered.

"Don't even think about it." Shadow warned, going to read another note.

'Oh new explorers who seek the light. Balance is essential for nature. Without it, we are drowned in the darkness. Tsuki'

"I'll go first…" Samuel carefully walked across the bridge, trying not to look down at the drop. After he reached the other side, Shadow followed. He managed to reach the other side, with no difficulty at all.

"Piece of cake." he scoffed as they walked into the next room. His eyes widened as he saw there was no bridge across the deep gap in the next cavern.

'Oh new explorers who hunt for glory. Faith is a quality you need. Let your faith guide you through this trial. Tsuki.' Samuel read out.

"What a load of waffle…how are we supposed to get across?" Shadow wondered. He looked down the vast chasm, and shivered as he imagined falling.

"Maybe this 'faith' thing means you're supposed to jump to the other side?" Samuel suggested.

"What do you mean, I'm going to jump?" Shadow asked. Samuel grinned, and shoved him off the cliff.

"HOLY CHAOS, CURSE YOU SAMUEL!" Shadow's voice echoed as he fell. The husky peered after him.

"Hmm…maybe I was wrong…oh well, at least he's dead." Samuel gleefully listened out for the sound of Shadow hitting the bottom, but he didn't hear anything. There was a gust of wind, and Shadow came flying back up.

"I am so going to get you back for this." Shadow hissed. He landed on the other side gently. Samuel jumped across, and landed right next to him.

"I was only trying to see if my theory was correct." he said.

"Well, next time, don't throw me over a cliff! I would happily kill you for that now, but Maria would be sad." Shadow glared at Samuel, and they walked into the next room, which was a hall with spikes on the ceiling. Shadow looked up at them.

"I don't like this…could be a trap…" he muttered.

"Well, I don't think those spikes are there to look pretty." Samuel said, stepping around carefully. He saw a door, which had what looked like a jigsaw puzzle nearby.

"I tell you, this Tsuki's crazy. There's a puzzle we have to solve!"

"Let me read out this clue…" Shadow read out the note.

'New explorers who stalk the past. Patience is needed sometimes to defeat an opposing foe. If you are hasty like the rabbit, you get eaten by the bear.'

"I really don't like this…" Shadow winced in pain as a screeching sound hurt his sensitive ears. He looked up to see the ceiling slowly moving down.

"Crap! We have to solve this puzzle quickly! I don't want to be spiked!" Shadow hurried over to the puzzle, and started nudging pieces into place.

"Hedgehog…you might want to slow down…those spikes are falling faster." Samuel noted.

"Well, come over here and help!"

After much shouting and arguing, they managed to fix the puzzle and went to the next room, which had a stone grid. Two squares were glowing on it.

'Oh new explorers who follow the light! Blaze your way to victory in your battles!' Shadow read out.

"It's another puzzle…I think I've seen a game like this before." Samuel said.

"What is it?"

"You have to step on one of the squares and step on every tile to past. But you have to get to the other square without touching any of the tiles you've stepped on. If you fail, you get electrocuted and you have to start again." Samuel explained.

"You're going on it then." Shadow pushed Samuel onto the tiles.

"Heh, whatever. Back in the day, I used to win at this game." Samuel smirked. He walked around, making the tiles light up, and then made the mistake of stepping onto an already lit tile.

"YOW!" Samuel shouted in pain. Shadow just shook his head.

"I think you're getting too old for this stuff." he said.

"Shut up…I know exactly what I'm doing."

A few moments later, Samuel completed the game, but he now looked like a shocked furball, with his fur standing up.

"You're doing the next trial, hedgehog…I need a holiday when I go back to work." Samuel mumbled, limping off into the next room. Shadow followed him, and they found a large cat statue blocking their path.

'New explorers who track the darkness. Things aren't what they seem. Use your sharp eyesight to unlock the path.' Shadow read out the next clue.

"Well, it looks like a statue is in the way." Samuel stated the obvious.

"Hmm…but there's a way around it…" Shadow said, examining the statue for any clues. His paw passed right though it.

"Easy as pie…come on, let's get to the last trial and get out of here. The sooner I get out of your presence, the better."

"Grr…" Samuel growled at Shadow. They walked into the last room, which was a wide hall with torches on fire. Samuel read out the last clue.

'Oh new explorers who have nearly completed the quest. You have overcome six trials of bravery, balance, faith, patience, intelligence and power. Use your learnt skills to defend your souls from disaster in this last trial. Here I come!'

"Isn't that effing great…a fight!" Shadow snarled, getting ready to attack. The torches suddenly went out, leaving them in total darkness.

"I don't like this…" Samuel whispered. There was a hiss, and a pair of yellow eyes appeared in front of them.

"So you're the ones who were sent on the trial…you've come a long way. But sadly, that's going to end now." a voice hissed.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Shadow yelled. There was some laughing, and the torches flickered back on. Shadow gasped in shock and wonder, for in front of them was a giant cat, with blue fur, sharp silver claws and two tails twitching behind it.

"I know this thing…it's a nekomata!" Samuel gulped.

"A nekomata?"

"A demon cat with the power to control fire, magic and bring the dead back to life!"

"Well, it seems you know a bit about the old legends." the cat said, slightly impressed.

"You don't have to fight us…you could just give us the sceptre." Shadow suggested.

"No! I must test your worth, for I am Tsuki, guardian of the Moonlight Crystal and ancestor to all bakeneko!" the cat shouted.

"We'll take you down!" Samuel charged at the cat, who just flipped him into a wall with her tail. He landed, knocked out.

"Whose idea was it to put an old man through the trials? I really should talk to Tei about this…" Tsuki grumbled, turning to face Shadow. She smiled, and her tails started glowing.

"To make it fair, I'll give you your true form back." she said. Shadow turned back into a hedgehog, and smirked at Tsuki.

"You've just given me an unfair advantage. I won't hold back." he grinned.

"Good, because I wasn't expecting you to!" Tsuki snarled.

Shadow dodged around Tsuki's fireballs, and used Chaos spear. The fight went on for a while, until Shadow started feeling tired.

"I think I used too much energy…" he panted. Despite all his efforts, Tsuki didn't have a scratch on her, while Shadow had scratches and a few burns on him.

"And you're the one who defeated Reimaru?" she asked, looking amused.

"Yeah…and I'm going to defeat you as well-" Shadow cried out as he was pinned under Tsuki's paw.

"I could take your soul right now…" she hissed. Shadow struggled around, and panicked as he saw Tsuki's claws unsheathing.

"I guess I'm not too hungry right now…hmm, what to do?" Tsuki wondered, holding a huge threatening claw above Shadow's face.

"This might work, but if not…" Shadow struggled around, and managed to get his bands off. He started glowing red, as Tsuki hissed.

"CHAOS BLAST!" he yelled. There was a deafening bang, and Tsuki yowled in pain, holding her paw.

"You'll pay for that." she glared at Shadow, and batted him into a wall. The poor hedgehog groaned, and passed out.


	30. Switching places!

_Sigh…another night, another update._

Disclaimer: _Oh, I'll just give the keyboard to Sammy…_

Swiftshadow123, AKA Swift, or 'That Girl With Cookies' as she is known at school, does not own any Sonic characters. She only owns her annoying jackal assistant, the coursework she drops on people, and her own OCs. She DOES NOT OWN Kaze, who belongs to a certain boy with locks (yes, you in the corner. Don't think I can't see you making rude gestures at me) or Aby…who has a tendency to kick people where it hurts. She belongs to Lucy Labrador, one of those fangirl authors. SEGA can't sue, and I'm going to make some coffee…but I'll take this Netbook with me.

_Dude, you wrote a paragraph…maybe you should do the disclaimers more. HEY! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING WITH MY NETBOOK? GET BACK HERE! MINE!_

Chapter 29: Switching places!

*theme song plays*

Shadow opened his eyes slowly. He winced in pain, and looked around. He seemed to be in a cave that was open to the sky. Moonlight was shining down into the cave, making everything glow bright. He turned his head, and saw he was lying next to a huge glowing white crystal, and he stared in amazement.

"Pretty, isn't it?" a voice said behind him. Shadow turned to see Tsuki sitting in front of him.

"You-" he began to say, before groaning in pain.

"You should get some more rest. Your injuries need some more time to heal."

"How do I know you won't try to attack me?"

"Jeez, I was only going easy on you when we were fighting. If I wanted to kill you, I could just have easily finished you off with some fire." Tsuki explained.

"Then why am I here?"

"When you used that attack…I got a little carried away, and your friend had to intervene."

"Oh…ok then. I can still fight, though." Shadow warned.

"Whatever."

Shadow relaxed, and went back to sleep again.

What had actually happened was this. The others found a way around the trials, and walked into Tsuki's cave to see her angrily attacking Shadow. Maria persuaded her to stop attacking, which led up to this present moment.

The others were sitting in the cave, discussing some things.

"That cat looks scary…" Aby whispered.

"Oh, stop your worrying. I think I'm going to be in more trouble." Reimaru sighed.

"Why? You're both fellow demons, right?" Swift asked. Reimaru scratched at the ground.

"Well…how would you mortals put it…? Ahem…she's my ex girlfriend." he muttered.

"Ex girlfriend? What happened?"

"I kind of lost it, and went after her brother to get a shard of that crystal over there…and she turned me into a statue for a few thousand years…" Reimaru said, looking at the ground.

"Wow…you must be old then…" Aby said.

"Yeah…if I hadn't been petrified for so long, I would have gotten my ninth tail…now I'm doomed to be an incomplete kyuubi for the rest of my life." Reimaru sighed sadly. Tsuki came over, glaring at Reimaru.

"You…how did you break free from that curse I placed on you?" she asked. Reimaru grinned nervously.

"A foolish explorer lifted the curse. His soul was tasty." he said. Tsuki's eyes hardened, and she stood up on two legs, and slapped Reimaru across the face.

"That's for going mad all those years ago!" she shouted. Reimaru rubbed his face.

"I guess I deserved that…" he muttered.

"And this…is for coming back." Tsuki gave the fox a hug, purring loudly.

"You…forgive me then?"

"Yes…it was partly my fault that you went mad…if I hadn't given the crystal shard to Claw, the power radiating from it wouldn't have driven you berserk. I'm sorry. After you were cursed, the other demons started to vanish…so, I'm the last nekomata, I think…I was alone for so many years…"

They stared at each other lovingly. But there was a loud interruption.

"EFFING HELL! WHERE'S THAT DAMM NEKOMATA AT?" Samuel yelled, getting up.

"It looks like the old guy is awake…" Aby said to Swift. There was a bright flash, and an old grey wolf appeared, looking angry.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME? I AM NOT OLD!" he raged.

"…Who are you?" Aby asked.

"Aby, I get this really weird feeling that that guy is Gerry." Swift whispered.

"DON'T CALL ME GERRY!" the wolf howled at the small rat, who cringed.

"Sorry, sorry…"

"Now…if you call me old again, I will be VERY annoyed, and I will send a big angry lizard after you. Clear?" the wolf asked. Aby slowly nodded, and the wolf vanished.

"Just ignore that guy…he's been in a bad mood for years…" Reimaru muttered.

"That was weird…"

"Yeah…in future, don't say o-l-d and guy in the same sentence. He gets mad. Self denial…" Reimaru shook his head.

"…Now that's over…I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU DEMON CAT!" Samuel yelled. Tsuki just glared at him, and he somehow became a fluffy chihuahua.

"…What the heck?" Samuel sweatdropped in embarrassment.

"I'd keep very quiet…I could turn you into your worst arch enemy."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Tsuki uttered a spell, and Samuel turned back into a husky and passed out again.

"He'll have the shock of his life when he wakes up…" she grinned.

"So…when is Shadow going to wake up?" Maria asked.

"Maybe the next morning…you guys can stay here tonight. The spirit world's not a safe place to roam after hours if you're a living mortal, but you should be safe here. I'm going to practise some magic, so don't interrupt me unless you enjoy being chased by zombies." Tsuki walked away.

"…Did she really mean that?" Aby asked Reimaru, who nodded.

"Nekomata are cats who can control dead people like puppets on strings, and they're very good at magic." he explained. Aby turned pale as she imagined zombies chasing after her.

"I think I'll stay here…nice and safe…" she muttered.

The next morning, Shadow stirred and woke up. He yawned and stretched, looking around.

"_Strange…someone must have moved me or something."_ he thought. He turned around, and saw his body still lying next to the crystal.

"_Is someone playing Ghost Tricks on me?"_ he wondered. Maria walked past.

"Oh…you're up early, Sammy." she said.

"It's Shadow-" Shadow heard himself reply in Samuel's voice.

"OH NO! IT CAN'T BE!" he shouted, panicking.

"Erm…what's wrong?" Maria looked puzzled.

"I'm seriously Shadow! I don't know how, but someone's playing tricks!" Shadow shouted. He ran off to a puddle of water, and looked at his face. He was a scruffy grey and white husky with red eyes.

"NOOOOOOO!" he howled.

"Samuel…you're starting to worry me…"

"I'm not Samuel, it's Shadow!"

"You need a holiday…a long holiday…"

Maria walked over to the hedgehog by the crystal, and gently shook him.

"Shadow? Are you awake?" she asked. He growled, and opened his eyes. One was brown, while the other was blue.

"Damn it…I hate morning…" he said.

"Shadow…your eyes are kind of weird…" Maria said slowly.

"I'm not SHADOW! IT'S SAMUEL!" the hedgehog shouted.

"I think you should take a look at yourself…" Maria suggested. Samuel saw his reflection in the crystal, and took a deep breath.

Outside the temple, some bakeneko were having some breakfast. They jumped in fright as they heard angry yelling.

"*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* I'M A FREAKING HEDGEHOG, *BEEP*!" Samuel's voice echoed.

"What the StarClan was that?" one cat asked her friend, who had an O_O expression on her face.

"I don't know…"

Back in the temple, Maria tried to assess the situation.

"OK…something very weird is going on here…" she replied.

"WEIRD? IT'S CHAOS AWFUL! I'M A DEMON HEDGEHOG!"

"Just calm down…let me get Shadow." Maria ran off, to find Shadow pacing up and down.

"I hate this!" he shouted.

"Shadow…you should know…Samuel's kind of a hedgehog now…" Maria carefully explained. Shadow ran over to Samuel.

"You…you….THIEF!" he yelled.

"THIEF? LOOK WHO'S TALKING!" they started arguing, making everyone wake up.

"What's going on now?" Aby asked Maria.

"It's hard to explain…basically, Shadow is actually Sammy, and Sammy is Shadow." Maria just got blank stares from everyone.

"It seems Tsuki kept true to her threat, and used her magic to swap their souls around…" Reimaru explained.

"Is it permanent?"

"No…it only lasts for a day…I think."

Tsuki walked in, looking smug.

"I guess you've found out my little trick." she said.

"Can you change them back?"

"No…the effects last for 24 hours."

"NOOOOOO!" Shadow and Samuel cried.

"Don't worry, they'll get along better after this." Tsuki muttered to Maria.

"I think I'll take the opportunity to throw myself of a cliff, or shoot myself…" Samuel grinned.

"You don't want to do that. If you intentionally commit suicide while in Shadow's body, you'll die." Tsuki warned.

"Damn it…"

"Well, we should get going! I have the sceptre of darkness with me, and I'm taking the crystal too." Tsuki made the crystal shrink down, and picked it up. She then turned into a girl with long blue hair, yellow eyes and a purple dress.

"Right, let's go." she said.

"24 hours…like this?" Shadow groaned.

This Fanfiction thing is rather strange…is this what teenagers do now? Back in my day-but I won't get into that crap. If you see Shadow, tell him I'm looking for him. And I think I should go before that author gets her Netbook back.

_GIVE ME IT!_


	31. Shadow's rampage!

_Whew, managed to get my Netbook back from Sam. He now has a large Kyuubi called Ninetails sitting on him._

_Disclaimer: Fail, man, fail. _

Chapter 30: Shadow's rampage!

*theme song plays*

You're probably wondering what happened to Team Tesco. Well, they were staying at a nearby hotel, keeping a low profile.

*flashback*

Tachi walked into the hotel reception. The admin behind the desk was a bit surprised to see a jackal furry, but she shook it off.

"Can I help you, madam?" she asked. Tachi walked to the desk.

"Yeah…I'd like a room for maybe a few days or so…I'm not sure." she explained.

"There's one room if you'd like to take it."

"OK!" Tachi gave the lady the money, and received the room keys from her. She went off to find the room, but actually headed for the kitchen.

"Now…I think it's time to create a bit of mayhem…" she sniggered.

Outside in the alleyway at the back of the kitchen, Blade and Spark were listening for Tachi's signal. They heard a long howl, and a loud commotion started up.

"CATCH THAT RAT!" someone shouted in the kitchen. Blade carefully opened the door, to see a crowd of chefs chasing after a small brown rat with an orange bandana. He and Spark tiptoed past the chefs, but it didn't really matter, because the staff were too busy chasing Tachi.

They went out into the corridor, and Blade picked up the room keys Tachi had thoughtfully dropped into a flower pot. They walked off to the room.

"Right…this room had better be good…" Blade muttered to Spark as he opened the door. Inside the room, there was a small bathroom, two beds, a fairly large TV and a desk with a few books on it. Spark jumped on the bed, and playfully rolled in it.

"Hey! Where am I supposed to sleep?" Blade shouted. Spark gave him a dirty look, jumped off the bed and curled up on the floor. Tachi ran in, panting.

"Those chefs sure hate rats…" she muttered. There was a loud rumbling noise, and Spark whined.

"Great, you're hungry…I guess we'll go down to the restaurant to see if there's anything for you. Tachi, are you coming?" Blade asked. Tachi nodded and followed the rat out, while Spark whined.

*end of flashback*

So, Team Tesco were still relaxing at the hotel. Spark still couldn't change back to his normal form, and he wasn't very well hidden. But apart from a unfortunate experience with the maid, who had walked into the room to find Spark reading a book with glasses on (poor lady was still traumatised) everything was fine, expect Blade just couldn't find the right words to say to Tachi.

"_Maybe I should find Shadow…yeah, he'll know what to do._" he thought. He got up to leave, and Tachi noticed.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm just going to go find Shadow…I'll be back soon." Blade walked out of the room, and out of the hotel.

Meanwhile, at the library, Tsuki was having the time of her life, but everyone else were bored.

"This place is so amazing!" Tsuki cried, flitting from bookshelf to bookshelf.

"It's just a library…with annoying kids…" Reimaru muttered.

"Library, you say? But…it doesn't look like a library…I mean, these things…what do you call them?" Tsuki asked, curiously looking at a book.

"They're called books. You read them."

"What happened to scrolls?"

"They went extinct. Along with the other demons." Reimaru sighed.

"Oh…"

"Haven't you seen a book before?" Shadow asked. The former hedgehog was getting used to being an old guy, but was shocked when he very nearly did his back in picking up a heavy book.

"No…it's quite weird looking…" Tsuki sniffed at the book, looking puzzled.

"Here, I'll teach you how to read it, ok?" Reimaru said. He started instructing Tsuki on how to read the book.

"This is so boring…I could be doing better things, like going on a rampage, then blaming it on Shadow…" Samuel muttered. Shadow glared at him.

"Oh really? I guess I'll find sometime to start dancing to some music, in a busy place!" Shadow threatened.

"You wouldn't dare."

Shadow got up, and started break dancing. People stared as they saw a random old guy do a backflip.

"MY EYES! THEY BLEED AND BURN!" Swift yelled, looking away and frantically trying to claw her eyes out. But what is seen cannot be unseen.

"That's kind of funny…" Aby sniggered.

"Stop it! You're showing me up!" Samuel hissed. Shadow stopped dancing, and smirked at him.

"Next time, I'll film it and put it on YouTube." he said.

"Fine…but you're going to get it when we're back to normal…" Samuel growled. Shadow just grinned, then gasped.

"Ow…my back! How the heck do you put up with this?" he shouted.

"I drink coffee." Samuel said simply.

"You're addicted to it…"

"I AM NOT!"

"Are too!"

"NO, I'M NOT!"

"Stop denying it."

"Stupid rodent…why can't I just kill you?" Samuel complained.

"Because you'd be killing yourself." Shadow looked smug.

"I can't take this! I need coffee!" Samuel stormed out.

"I think I'll go after him…" Shadow followed.

"Sigh…Tsuki, can't you just change them back? I think you made things worse…" Maria said.

"What are you talking about? They're perfectly fine-" Tsuki paused as a yell of, "I HATE YOUR *BEEPING* GUTS, RODENT!" was heard.

"Trust me, I think World War Three is going to break out after they switch back…"

"Which is why I shouldn't turn them back!" Tsuki happily smiled.

"But they're just going to end up fighting…"

"Tsuki. I know how you nekomata are with your pranks, but don't you want to stop them from fighting all the time? Just change them back, they're giving everyone a headache.." Reimaru pleaded. And it took a lot for demon foxes to plead with people.

"Oh, fine…" Tsuki snapped. She took out a very old looking piece of parchment.

"Hmm…yes, I can do this." she said, folding the parchment back into her pocket.

Outside, at a local coffee lounge, business was going on as usual. The guy at the till lazily yawned, then snapped to attention as the door opened. He couldn't see who the customer was, because of the tables and chairs in the way. Then two pointed black ears just appeared over the edge of the counter. The assistant craned his neck forward for a closer look at the customer, and was surprised to see a hedgehog furry there, not looking too happy.

"Can I help you sir?" he asked.

"Yes…can I have five cups of coffee please?" Samuel asked. The guy's eyes nearly fell out.

"Five? Are you sure sir?" he said in shock.

"Of course I'm sure! Now get serving before I own you!" the hedgehog growled angrily. Not wanting to be attacked by a moody hedgehog, the assistant quickly served up the coffee.

"5.34 dollars please." he said. Samuel just looked at himself, and realised he didn't have pockets.

"Damn it…" he muttered, trying to figure out where Shadow would usually keep his money. He finally remembered, reached into his head quills and pulled out a note.

'I owe you 5 dollars and a Pokémon card set. From Maria' it read. Samuel growled, and searched around more, and got another note.

'We owe you a dollar and those biscuits you were saving. From Ace and Brook' the note cheerfully said. Samuel growled, starting to lose it.

"You know what sir? You can have this coffee on the house!" the assistant said hurriedly, giving Samuel the coffee. He went and sat at a table, and started drinking the coffee. A few cups later (¬_¬) Shadow and Maria showed up. They walked in, and Shadow saw Samuel sipping the coffee.

"Don't I get some kind of warning before you go off, drinking coffee?" he complained.

"You know I get _slightly_ annoyed when I miss my coffee, hedgehog." Samuel replied.

"Yeah, but I'm not used to coffee! How many cups have you had?"

"About…two."

Shadow blinked in shock, and turned to Maria.

"He can't remember that day on the ARK when I had coffee, right?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so…"

"What happened?" Samuel asked.

"Well…"

*flashback*

A young teenage Samuel (scary thought, that) was sitting in the kitchen, with a cup of coffee in one hand. He jumped as he heard his dad shouting.

"SAM! THIS ROOM IS IN A MESS! GET DOWN HERE AND CLEAN IT NOW!" his dad yelled. Samuel sighed, and left the coffee on the table. He got up, and remembered something Maria said to him.

"_Sammy! Don't leave your coffee around for Shadow to find! If he drinks coffee, he might get sick or WORSE!" _Maria's voice warned in Samuel's mind. The teen just shrugged.

"Why should I care about that rat anyway?" he asked himself, walking out. A few moments later, a very curious small Shadow walked in.

"Hey…what's that?" he wondered, seeing the coffee on the table. He checked to make sure Samuel wasn't around, and then he tiptoed over and gulped all of it down.

"Yuck…this tastes bitter…" he grumbled, dropping the cup. Then his eye started twitching.

Many minutes later, Samuel came back, and saw his coffee was gone.

"What?" he shouted. Then he remembered Shadow was around.

"That pesky…well, I guess it's worth it if he does get sick." he said to himself.

"SAMMY!" Maria shouted from the front room. Samuel sighed and walked into the front room. A not so happy Maria was waiting for him there.

"What did I say about leaving coffee around for Shadow to find?" she asked.

"Meh, something about the little rodent getting sick or worse…"

"And you left it out, didn't you?"

"Yeah…is that hedgehog ill?" Samuel asked, looking hopeful.

"You know I said worse could happen if Shadow drank the coffee right? Well…" Maria stepped aside, revealing a hyperactive Shadow running on the walls.

"WEEEEEE!" he cried.

"Oh Chaos…" Samuel facepalmed.

"Exactly! Now we have to get him down before-" Maria stopped talking as Gerald walked in.

"Oh, hi-WHY IS SHADOW RUNNING AROUND ON THE WALLS?" he shouted. Maria and Samuel cast guilty looks at each other, while Shadow ran unto the ceiling and somehow started to dance.

"Someone better explain why there's a hyper hedgehog on the ceiling! Sam left his coffee lying around, didn't he?"

"RUSHHH!" Shadow yelled out, running around in circles.

*end of flashback*

"Hmm…yeah…I think I remember that. And then I got grounded for a week." Samuel muttered.

"Well, think about it…Shadow was younger then, but it took a lot of waving of pizza for him to finally get down from the wall. Now, think about ADULT Shadow." Maria pointed out.

"…Oh crap, what have I done?" Samuel shouted. Then he relaxed.

"Well, I'm in Shadow's body right now, so nothing should happen, as long as we don't get switched back."

Right at that moment, Tsuki, Reimaru and Team Outcast ran in.

"OK…Oh, old magic good and true! Lift the curse from these two dudes! Switch their souls back to where they belong!" Tsuki chanted, her tails glowing with blue fire. Shadow and Samuel both passed out, and then Samuel woke up, back to normal. He glared at Tsuki.

"You just unleashed the fury of hyperactive Shadow." he said.

"What do you mean?"

Shadow woke up. His eyes started to twitch, and his fur fluffed up.

"COFFFFEEEEEE!" he yelled, crashing through the window and running outside. Everyone glared at Tsuki, who sweatdropped.

"Whoops, how clumsy of me…" she said.

"Don't worry, I'll catch him." Samuel loaded his gun.

"NO! We'll handle it. Do you have any darts?" Maria asked. Samuel gave her a dart gun.

"I always have some…just in case a certain demon fox goes evil again…" he mumbled, staring at Reimaru who growled. Maria gave the gun to Tsuki.

"What's this?" she asked, sniffing at it.

"You'll have to hit Shadow with a dart, I'm afraid…he might hurt himself." Maria explained.

"Why don't you do it?"

"I'm not too good with guns…at all." Maria shivered as she looked at the weapon.

"Oh, fine…"

A few moments later, Blade was walking outside, when he saw Shadow running down the road.

"Hey, Shady!" he called as Shadow ran past, ignoring him.

"Wow, what a big over flowing bucket full of patience…" Blade sarcastically said. Tsuki came chasing after Shadow.

"Slow down!" she called, racing past.

_And that my friends, is why you don't give Shadow coffee. Now, excuse me…I have to go burn my eyes out with strong bleach. Seeing the Commander dance…*shudders*_


	32. Spirit possesion

_It's coming up to the end of the story…_

_Other news: No longer accepting OCs for last part to this series, sorry…there's a lot of characters. The person who have sent in their OC already (you know who you are…) congrats, your OC is officially allowed into Tachi's club, where only the elite are allowed, and you must hunt for shinies…I hope I do your OC justice._

Chapter 31: Spirit possession

*theme song plays*

Tsuki finally managed to corner the hyper Shadow, who was grinning madly and waving at shocked random people on the street.

"I'm not good with these things…" she muttered, pointing the dart gun at Shadow. He turned around.

"OH CRAP!" he panicked, jumping around.

"AHHH! STAY STILL!" Tsuki shouted. Her tails started glowing.

"Oh old magic of ancient times, freeze this hedgehog in his tracks!" she yelled. Shadow stopped moving, and blinked.

"I can't move?" he wondered. A dart landed in his shoulder, and he fell on the ground, knocked out. Tsuki picked him up, and took him to where the others were waiting.

"Here, take your insane hedgehog before I fry him." she said, giving Shadow to Maria.

"He'll wake up soon, I guess…" she muttered.

"I'll take you guys to the hotel!" Blade said, leading them to the hotel.

A few hours later, everyone had their own rooms. Maria, Blade and Tachi were in one room, where Shadow was sleeping on a bed. Spark was in the corner, with some glasses on, reading a book.

"So, Spark can't change back?" Maria asked. Blade nodded.

"We can't keep hiding him for much longer…the staff are getting suspicious." Blade said.

"Well, you could just ignore the fact he's a wolf, and wait for him to change back, instead of hiding him."

"There's a very big problem." Blade muttered. There was a knock on the door, and Spark quickly hurried under the bed, lifting it up by a few inches. Blade jumped as Samuel stuck his head in.

"You kids should be careful, I just heard from a maid that there was a wolf running wild around the hotel and town…I'll bet that that's the same wolf from Westopolis…anyone want to help me find him?" he asked.

"Thanks for the very kind offer, but no." Blade quickly said. Samuel shrugged, and shut the door.

"…And that's why I need to hide Spark. Because he'll get shot at." Blade explained.

"Sigh…if only we could tell him who the wolf was, without any fighting…" Maria sighed. Spark growled from under the bed.

"Fat chance, that guy wants him dead!"

Suddenly, Shadow started thrashing around and yelping in pain. Maria hurried over, while Spark came out from under the bed, looking confused.

"Oh no! We shouldn't have used those darts on him!" Maria gasped. Shadow opened one eye.

"Maria…get away from here…" he groaned, before passing out again.

"We need a vet!" Tachi yelled.

"Where are we going to find one?" Blade yelled back. Spark whined.

Then Shadow just sat up, and blinked, like nothing didn't happen.

"Hello…strange wolf, jackal, rat and human girl." he said in a dark voice.

"Erm…Shadow, you can remember our names right?" Maria asked. Shadow slowly nodded.

"You children are Maria, Tachi, Spark and Blade." he said.

"OK then…"

"I'm perfectly fine. No need to worry your dear mortal souls about it." Shadow said without any emotion.

"We'll just leave you to recover then..."

"I have something I need to find…I'll be back." Shadow walked out of the room.

"Does he normally act like that?" Tachi asked Maria.

"No…" Maria muttered, looking worried.

A few hours later, everyone had forgotten about the strange incident, when Reimaru ran in, looking upset.

"Little ones! Tsuki's been injured!" he panicked, his fox ears twitching.

"Reimaru! Calm down and tell us what happened." Maria said, trying to get the scared fox to sit down.

"I think you should see for yourself!"

So everyone (except Spark, of course) went to the library, which had been blocked by police tape. They ducked under it, and walked in, to find Samuel and Paul already there, looking for clues. Shadow was standing in the room, his eyes emotionless.

"Shadow! Are you ok?" Maria asked, walking over.

"Yes. That nekomata was attacked…and her crystal was stolen." he said.

"By who?"

"I'm not so sure, but I'll bet it was that demon, Mephiles…he's the only one who could take down a nekomata in a few seconds." Shadow hissed.

Maria looked at the scene. Some books were scattered around, and there were claw marks on the walls. She looked more closely, and her eyes widened as she saw some dots of blood on the floor. Samuel walked over.

"That attacker didn't leave any clues behind…" he muttered.

"Are you sure it was Mephiles?"

"Maybe…but Paul and I just turned up here, and Shadow came out. He said that Tsuki was badly injured, and the attacker was Mephiles." Samuel explained, his eyes doubtful.

"How is Tsuki?" 

"Oh, she's fine, and recovering at a local hospital…the poor nurse was startled by the fact that she was a demon cat."

Reimaru came up, and looked at the crime scene. His eyes blazed with anger, and he turned into his demon form.

"Tsuki…I'll rip that demon hedgehog's head off, and send his soul to the dark forest! HOW DARE HE ATTACK YOU!" Reimaru howled, sending a few bookshelves flying in his anger.

"Fox, you're disrupting the crime scene." Samuel snapped. Reimaru turned back into a human, growling and looking furious.

"Now…you have the sceptre of darkness, right?"

"Yeah…Tsuki gave it to me before…before she was attacked…" Reimaru replied.

"You might be the next person that Mephiles goes after then. If it was Mephiles…" Samuel cast a dark look at Shadow.

"You suspect Shadow?" Maria whispered.

"There's something not right with that rodent…I mean, he isn't acting upset or anything! I accused him of being the attacker, and he just shrugged at me! Usually he'd be trying to Chaos spear me!"

"He has been acting weird.."

"And…this is going to sound crazy, but I can see a faint dark aura on him." Samuel said, still staring at Shadow.

"Oh, that's not surprising. Blind people and odd eyed people can see things like that..." Reimaru explained.

"Like how I saw him as a ghost?"

"Yeah…"

"You have powers?" Maria said, looking at Samuel with a shocked expression.

"Well, if colour blindness is a power, then yeah."

"You're colour blind?"

"No duh, of course!"

"Well…I guess that explains why you thought Sonic stole that Chaos emerald rather than Shadow a few years back…" Maria muttered.

"How do you know about that?"

"I have my ways…"

Meanwhile, Shadow listened to all this talk. He slowly walked out. Reimaru came out a few moments later, and ran over to him.

"Hedgehog…if you attacked Tsuki, I swear I will eat you alive." he threatened.

"Hmph. I have something to discuss with you." Shadow led Reimaru into an alleyway.

"So, what do you want?" Reimaru asked.

"I want the sceptre of darkness." Shadow growled suddenly, his eyes flickering green.

"…It's you, isn't it?" Reimaru cried, leaping forward. Shadow grinned, and whacked him into a wall.

"Now. Hand it over, and your death will be painless." Shadow said, holding out his hand. Reimaru growled, tilted back his head and howled. The hedgehog quickly grabbed him by his neck, and summoned a Chaos spear. Reimaru whimpered.

"Say goodbye, you pesky fox…" Shadow snarled.

"Shadow!"

Shadow turned around to see Maria run up. He smirked.

"What makes you think you can stop me?" he asked, walking up to her.

"Shadow, this isn't you! What are you doing?"

"You're right, it isn't me." Shadow grinned. Maria saw his eyes were glowing green, and backed away.

"My plans are nearly complete…all I need now is the sceptre of darkness…but first, I'll send you back to the spirit world!" Shadow shouted. Reimaru growled.

"Maria, get out of here! That's not Shadow, it's Mephiles!" he yelled.

"What-what happened to Shadow?"

"Oh, he isn't dead…I just took over his body." Mephiles smiled viciously.

"Bring him back!"

"No…you're not really in a position to make demands." As Mephiles drew nearer, there was a loud bang. He jumped, surprised.

"Curses…it looks like I'll have to leave…but at least I've got what I needed…" Mephiles taunted, falling unto the ground. Shadow's eyes turned back to their red colour, and he groaned, holding his chest.

"Why…" he passed out. Maria ran over.

"Shadow…"

Samuel walked up, glaring at Shadow.

"You're lucky that I was around…I knew that hedgehog was evil…let me finish him off." he said.

"No! You don't understand, Shadow was possessed by Mephiles!" Maria shouted.

"He's still evil…" Samuel growled.

"He's not! Now, we have to get to the hospital!"

"Fine…I guess I can get him later." Samuel said under his breath. Maria picked up Shadow, and they headed to the hospital.


	33. The darkness is rising

_Hi…you guys probably thought I was dead…nope, just pretty lazy…I might be gone for two weeks, so I'll finish this story now. And…I've lost my document for this story. Thank StarClan I uploaded all the chapters already, so now I just have to type the last chapter from scratch._

Chapter 32: The darkness is rising…(wow, what a film.)

*theme song plays*

The group managed to get to the hospital quickly, without any trouble. Maria watched as Shadow was carried off by a nurse.

"I hope he's fine…" she muttered.

"Since we're here, I'm going to visit Tsuki…" Reimaru said.

"We'll come with you then."

"I'm going back to the library…I've got more important things to do than to be waiting around here." Samuel walked off.

Tsuki was reading a book in a bed. She was still in her furry form, except there were bandages tied on her tails, head and arms. She looked up as Reimaru and Maria walked in.

"Tsuki! You're ok!" Reimaru cried, giving his friend a hug.

"Yes…but I must find Mephiles and restore the crystal!" Tsuki shouted, trying to sit up. She groaned and collapsed again.

"Take it easy…we'll handle things." Reimaru said.

"You don't understand! Mephiles took…took…" Tsuki looked away.

"Took what? I thought he just wanted to break the crystal, and get the sceptre…" Maria said.

"There's a reason why he wanted to break it…you have heard of his goals, right?"

"Yeah…and I know if you break the crystal, something bad happens…"

"Listen to me. Inside the crystal, feeding off its power was a very powerful jewel. It contains…well, I'm not going to say." Tsuki mumbled.

"Why not?"

"This jewel…in the wrong hands, it'll bring disaster…and now Mephiles has it…"

"Wait…is it…" Reimaru looked at Tsuki with a meaningful look.

"Yes…it is."

A nurse came in, carrying a still knocked out Shadow. She put him on the bed next to Tsuki.

"Is he going to be alright?" Maria asked.

"Yes, he just needs some rest. His injury wasn't as bad as it looked." the nurse said, walking out. Shadow twitched an ear, and yawned. Then he woke up.

"…I hate being possessed…" he mumbled, wincing as he felt some pain in his chest.

"Do you know how it happened?" Maria asked.

"Yeah…"

Shadow's flashback

Shadow looked around. He was in total darkness, in his dreams.

"I better get out of here…before that Mephiles finds me…" he said to himself. Right on cue, a hand grabbed him from behind. Shadow struggled around, and turned to find Mephiles grinning behind him.

"It's been a while, has it not?" he asked.

"You…let me go!" Shadow shouted. He couldn't use any of his Chaos abilities to break free.

"No. I have something in mind for you…"

Shadow flattened his ears as Mephiles laughed evilly.

"You really should be more careful..."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Nothing much really…just break that Moonlight crystal, and get the sceptre of darkness, so you and your whining bunch of friends don't try to come after me…and then, I will erase this timeline, with the help of the treasure from the crystal…" Mephiles smirked.

"And I'm here because…?"

"Oh, I'm just going to borrow your body for a while…"

"Oh hell no!" Shadow yelled, as he was trapped in a dark aura.

*end of flashback*

"We have to stop him…" Tsuki said.

"Yes, but how? We have the sceptre, we just don't know where he is."

"Knowing him, he'll go to a place with power. Like the local volcano…"

Just then, Ace, Aby and Paul came running in.

"You guys have to see this!" Ace shouted.

"Why? What's going on?" Maria asked.

"The sky's gone purple outside…and there's a strange guy laughing from the top of a building…" Aby muttered. They looked out of the window. Outside, the sky was indeed a dark purple colour, and there was a crowd gathering, to point and wonder at a laughing Mephiles, who was standing on a roof.

"All you mortals! Your days are numbered! In a few minutes, a eclipse will happen, plunging this town into darkness! I will take this opportunity to erase your pathetic town off the map for good! Once that's sorted, I will start erasing this timeline! But for now…here's a few of my minions!" Mephiles laughed evilly, pointing at the sky.

A portal appeared, depositing weird looking fiery snakes, frogs, small dragons and…oversized kittens?

They roared, and started to chase people around. Mephiles smiled, and vanished in a poof of purple smoke. Inside the building, everyone stared.

"Those monsters…" Aby whispered, looking scared.

"We're screwed." Paul sighed.

"No, we're not! We just have to stop those creatures from destroying the town!" Ace shouted.

"So, who's going to stop Mephiles?" Shadow asked. Tsuki looked at him.

"You. You are our last hope." she said, sitting up.

"Why me…" Shadow sighed.

"Because, you were chosen by fate to defeat Mephiles…I have seen the future."

"I'm kind of injured…" Shadow pointed out. Tsuki's tails started glowing.

"Oh old magic good and true, please heal this hero anew…" she said. Shadow blinked as his injury healed up. The cat smiled, and passed out.

"Tsuki…you better be thankful, Shadow…she used all of her energy to heal you." Reimaru said. Shadow jumped out of the bed.

"OK…I have a plan…we find everyone, and defeat the monsters…" he said.

"And what will you do?" Maria asked. Shadow turned around, looking epic, with his quills waving in the wind, even though there wasn't any.

"I'm going to take down Mephiles, once and for all!" he shouted.


	34. Chapter 34: Day of the Wolf

_WOOT! I'M BACK, WITH THE FINAL CHAPTER OF MOONLIGHT AND DAYLIGHT! _

*crickets chirp and a tumbleweed rolls past*

_Okay then…_

Old Tachi: *with a walking stick and silver grey streaks in her fur* I got old waiting for you whippersnapper! And, Sammy's no better.

Sammy: WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU? WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Akemi: *is 27* Oh yeah. I'm not 17 anymore. I CAN DRINK!

_Oops. I guess I need to be less lazy…erm, I'll correct this whole future thing later…_

Disclaimer: I don't own any Sonic characters. Aby is Lucy Labrador's OC, and Kaze belongs to Dude Who Plays Solatorobo. The rest of the OCs belong to me. Doesn't Naruto like ramen?

* * *

><p>Chapter 34: Day of the wolf<p>

*theme song plays*

After Shadow had done his whole 'epic quills blowing in the wind' thing, everyone headed to the library to plot against the fire demons wreaking much mayhem and chaos in the streets.

"It doesn't look nice out there…" Aby shivered as a dragon ran past the window she was peeking through.

"I have a plan…" Reimaru muttered. Everyone turned to look at him.

"First, we send Shadow with the Sceptre of Darkness to seal Mephiles, and second, we'll have to stop those…things…outside killing everyone."

"But…where would Mephiles be?" Shadow asked. Reimaru grinned.

"Seeing as he's the half of a sun god, or rather, sun _demon,_ he'll be where his natural element is at his best. The local volcano."

"A local volcano? Is that even geographically possible?" Samuel wondered. He looked over at Swift, who was busy typing on a Netbook.

"And then, the old dude referred to as Earl Grey from now on, looked at the innocent cat who totally wasn't trying to, like get on his nerves!" she said aloud as she typed.

"Are we breaking the fourth wall again?" Reimaru muttered. Shadow nodded, and Reimaru turned to the reviewers reading this story, with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Creative fans. I know you're reading this. I have a message…you better send in ramen and maybe some chocolate because…I haven't received any offerings lately. I'm sure you don't want to be cursed…so send the ramen and chocolate in or else." he threatened.

"Reimaru, stop threatening the reviewers." Maria sighed.

"A demon's got to make his living somehow…" Reimaru continued to glare at the invisible readers of the story.

"Right…then, I'll see to Mephiles." Shadow said, unsure of how to react.

"You'll need this." Maria managed to yank the Sceptre of Darkness out of Tachi's paws, and she gave it to Shadow.

"MY SHINY!" Tachi screamed. She became quiet as Maria gave her a shiny rock.

"Shadow…are you sure you don't want anyone to go with you?" She asked. Shadow nodded firmly.

"Mephiles won't hesitate to kill any of you guys…it's better if I go." he said.

"Okay…come back safe…" Maria gave Shadow a hug, and he walked off, only to be jumped on by two fangirls. He sighed as Aby and Swift nearly hugged the life out of him.

"If you die, I'm becoming emo!" Swift announced.

"Yeah…come back soon!" Aby added. Shadow shook the girls off him, and ran off into the darkness.

"…We better go and help those people out there, you know." Blade muttered, looking at the sky. It was still a dark purple colour, but the moon was slowly moving across the sun.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, Shadow had reached the volcano, and was standing in the crater, searching for any sign of Mephiles.<p>

"Come out and show yourself! I know you're there!" he shouted. The demon hedgehog slunk out of the shadows in front of him, and stopped, looking at Shadow.

"So…you think you have the strength to defeat me?" He asked.

"Yeah. You're going down!" Shadow yelled, waving the Sceptre and looking epic. Mephiles just laughed.

"It'll be a pleasure killing you…but, maybe I should leave you barely alive…so you can hear the screams of your dying friends as I erase this timeline and become…the Time Lord…"

"Mephiles…you do know that the title, 'Time Lord' is already taken, right?"

"Then, I'll become…the Time King. Enough talk, Shadow! Let us fight!"

And the final fight begun. Shadow dodged Mephiles' beams of energy, and managed to do a fancy spin kick and hit him in the head. As he was reaching for the Sceptre, Mephiles turned around.

"Oh, I can not be defeated so easily." Mephiles took out a pure orange jewel, and held it up. It had a small blue flame flickering inside it, but apart from that, it looked like a normal precious stone.

"This jewel boosts my powers…while I have it, you stand no chance of winning."

"We'll see about that…" Shadow growled.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, back in the main part of Soleanna, all the teams were trying to fight off the fire demons.<p>

"Seriously…we need some water or something…" Akemi dodged around a demon trying to claw him to death, and hit it with a bat, making it poof away.

"Well, look around! We're in the freaking city of water!" Samuel shouted back, trying to stop a blazing wolf demon from burning him. Akemi turned, and saw a huge fat bird demon that resembled a chicken for some reason, evaporating all of the water out of the canals, leaving behind mud and some poor fish gasping for breath. The chicken turned around, and let out a terrifying cluck.

"A chicken?" Ace wondered.

"I don't care if it's a sparkling teenage vampire, kill it!" Samuel aimed at the chicken with his gun, and started shooting. It didn't have much effect on the giant bird, however.

* * *

><p>The Team Outcast members were having to fight for themselves. Kaze lived up to his name and ran around a demon, making it get whirled up by strong winds, while Swift defended herself with a Chihuahua statue (called Chloe). Aby shivered as more demons appeared. Fighting wasn't really her strong point.<p>

"ROOOAR!" a demon roared, towering over her. Aby slowly turned around, and he eyes went wide as she saw the demon's sharp fangs.

"Oh no…" she muttered, backing away into the wall. The demon grinned, advancing, when Aby got an idea.

"I'm rather sorry for this…" she said, and kicked the demon in the nuts. The demon's eyes rolled in its head, and it slowly fell over, before vanishing.

* * *

><p>Shadow was continuing to fight Mephiles, but he was slowly losing. He had a few cuts and burns, while Mephiles remained unharmed.<p>

"Why don't you give up, Shadow? There's no way you can win…" he hissed.

"For a demon hedgehog, you're awfully over confident." Shadow kicked Mephiles into a wall, and watched as he struggled to stand up.

"You dare call me over confident? You're the one who calls himself the ultimate lifeform…" Mephiles groaned. Shadow picked up the Sceptre from where it had fallen, and went over to Mephiles.

"Sorry in advance for sealing you away." he said, holding out the shiny rod. A purple jewel on the top started glowing. Mephiles hissed, and got up. Shadow tried to avoid the attack, but Mephiles grabbed him by the throat.

"The eclipse is nearly complete…only a few more seconds before I claim what's mine…" he said. Shadow struggled around as Mephiles strangled him, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the moon finally block the sun.

And then everything went dark and silent.

* * *

><p>Tachi peeked cautiously over a table. She was hiding in the library with Blade and Maria, who were hiding behind a bookshelf.<p>

"Hey guys, do you think it's safe?" Tachi whispered. Blade was about to reply back when the same demon chicken from before crashed through the wall, trying to shake Samuel off its back.

"Stay still you-" he began to say, before a loud roar from above interrupted him.

"_DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT LINE FROM SHADOW'S GAME, OR I WILL GO RABID CRAZY FANGIRL!_" the author, or rather Swift (who wasn't anywhere around in the library) yelled.

"Why can't the story be normal?" Samuel complained. The chicken shook him off, and was about to attack him, when a giant wolf burst through the hole in the wall, and slashed it with his claws, making the chicken vanish.

"Hey! You're that wolf!"

Spark growled as Samuel took out his gun, but Blade jumped in front of him.

"Wait! I can explain. This wolf is Spark…he's a shapeshifter." he explained quickly what had happened to Spark.

"He still killed three people though! Spark, you're not going to get away with this…"

Spark just whined and let his tail droop. Blade then turned to Tachi.

"Tachi, I've been wanting to say this for a while…I fancy you." he muttered, blushing under his fur. Tachi stared at him, shocked.

"Blade? SQUEEE!" she screamed, jumping on Blade to give him a hug. Maria sighed at the happy scene, while Spark brushed a tear out of his eye.

"Big freaking deal…" Samuel said to himself. Blade raised a middle finger up at him.

* * *

><p>Shadow looked around his surroundings. He seemed to be in a pitch black void, and he could hear Mephiles laughing victoriously.<p>

"…I failed in my task…I guess I'll just pass onto the afterlife…" Shadow collapsed, and let the darkness take over his mind, when suddenly there was a bright flash.

"HEY! You can't give up and die now! There's people out there who need you!" a voice shouted. Shadow looked up and saw a grey wolf with what looked like goggles perched on his head.

"And who might you be?" he asked.

"I'm surprised you don't know. Now come on! You'll have to seal Mephiles while I distract him." the wolf barked.

Mephiles was still laughing evilly, as he prepared to wipe out the timeline. But he failed to see the hedgehog he thought was dead slowly rising behind him.

"Finally…without that meddling Shadow in my way, nothing, nothing at all will stop me from erasing this timeline, and bringing in a new age!" he shouted.

"HEY, MEPHY!" the wolf shouted from in front of him. Mephiles looked up and recognised him.

"What business do you have here? You're supposed to be dead, and your dear son should be with you…"

"Oh really? You haven't noticed anything missing?"

Mephiles glanced around, and saw the Sceptre of Darkness was missing. Then he turned and saw a smirking Shadow holding it.

"YOU! Why don't you just give up and die already!" he hissed. Shadow shrugged.

"I've died many times before. There was that fall from the ARK, that second fall, when Samuel shot me, and when I drowned…it's hard to die when you're immortal, you know."

"Well, I'll just have to separate your soul from your body!" Mephiles lifted a hand, but cried out in pain as some sunlight shone down.

"What…? What is this…" he growled.

"You're going back in the Sceptre. Sorry about that…" Shadow held the Sceptre out, and watched as Mephiles was dragged kicking and screaming towards it.

"NO! I refuse to go back to that prison! I'll destroy you! NOOOO!" Mephiles turned into a purple cloud, which was pulled into the Sceptre.

"This isn't the end Shadow! The demon goddess, ancestor to all demon foxes will awaken when the silver moon rises! You will suffer the curse of Ninetails!" Mephiles' voice echoed, before going silent.

"Game over, Mephiles." Shadow looked around, but realised the wolf was gone. He decided to enjoy the moment, and basked in the daylight.

* * *

><p>So, after a long, epic, random and maybe pointless filler journey to Soleanna, Mephiles was defeated. The Sceptre of Darkness was given to the local museum for some strange reason, and the teams packed up their stuff and started the long journey home. They avoided the desert jackal territory, so no troubles arose.<p>

When they got back to Station Square, Spark was immediately arrested and sentenced to suspended animation, but Blade managed to persuade, or rather, bribe Samuel with the promise of iced coffee every morning, and Spark became a GUN agent. He rather liked the weapons in the job, and crime rates in Station Square soon dropped because criminals didn't want to be chased by a killer wolf.

Team Outcast started holding a Shadow Fangirls Association club in the local library, and Shadow was never seen in that area again. Swift finally got Solatorobo, and challenged Kaze to an air race, while Aby got some coke and helped people to learn how to kick someone in the nuts (and Sammy was one of her unfortunate victims, but that's for another story)

Akemi was dragged screaming and acting rather undignified by Hikari and Paul to the hairdressers. He got his hair trimmed, so he could finally see properly, but he still had the hairstyle of an Old English Sheepdog. He really was, and still is, protective of his hair.

Samuel got coffee delivered by Blade every morning.

Tachi eventually moved in with Blade and Spark, despite the fact Rouge insisted the relationship was awkward and wouldn't work, due to Blade being a rat and Tachi being a jackal.

Eggman turned up in a dog kennel for some reason, because he was accidently turned into a Shiba-Inu with an epic moustache.

And Amy moved even more closely to Sonic's house. The famous blue blur swore that she was stalking him, and tried to get a restraining order, but it didn't work.

As for Reimaru and Tsuki, they left for the spirit world, but not before leaving Shadow with the curious jewel Mephiles had stolen from Tsuki. Maria continued to be an epic Pokémon Trainer.

The wolf appeared to yell at people who said 'Old Guy' frequently.

And that's the end of this story.

* * *

><p><em>But what did Mephiles mean, Ninetails will rise? All will be revealed in the final part in the Shadow and Light Trilogy, where there'll be…<em>

_-Another epic quest with filler_

_-Okami references_

_-Loads of plot twists!_

_-A certain OC who likes vodka, cough, Levinski, cough._

_-And much more…_

Tachi: Chaos and Control! It'll come out when Swift finishes playing Solatorobo!

_TO THE CREDITS!_

_Lucy Labrador-Thanks for allowing your OC to be in the story, and thanks for being an awesome epic friend!_

_Hande-erm, I mean, Levinski Prower-For reviewing every chapter, and owning Sammy!_

_Darkrose-I don't know where you are, but thanks for submitting your OC! I think I epically failed, though…sorry…erm, if you're still reading this story, I take requests._

_And every other reviewer for taking the time to review! Now, to the characters!_

_Shadow-Awesome. Epic. Cuteness. Nuff said._

_Maria-As awesome as Shadow!_

_Tei-Your boss is hard in Okami, but you're EPIC!_

_Sammy-The only complement I have is, you have cool eyes._

_And thanks to any other Sonic character I missed!_

_To the cool people: Special thanks to a certain person in Year 12…you know who you are, and thanks for giving me advice many times, and not looking at me funny when you read some of my story. Congratulations on your grades!_

_To Kaze-Thanks for introducing me to Solatorobo, and being probably the only other Sonic fan in the school I know._

Tachi: That about wraps up the credits!

_Tachi, I think it's prophesising time._

Tachi:…right…I'll read out the prophesy for the next story then.

'**On the night of the full moon, the white fox will rise again, and threaten to unbalance the world with darkness. One of the shadows shall arrive, the other shall fall and rise. Chaos will not be controlled, black and white will turn to grey, and the fox will claim all at the demon's gateway. **

**But peace won't come until the spirit who is dead and alive slays the fox with the sunlit sword and the hawk flies in the sky. Heed my words, listen to the hero with the crystal sword and fur as green as grass, and before the jackal howls, the darkness will turn to light. Those who seek the sword of light, defeat the one who leads the chaos and the night.'**

_And that's the only preview of the plot you reviewers are getting. I wonder, are there hidden character references in there…?_

_Swiftshadow123, signing off!_

Tachi: Bye!

Reimaru: DON'T FORGET MY OFFERINGS!


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